Changing Fates
by Cearbhail
Summary: Cecilie knew this day was coming. The Dwemer have invaded her timeline. But... they've also invaded Vatu's, Lydia's, and Bloodstain's. Four worlds all facing a strong Dwemer powerhouse. Will the heroes of these four worlds ban together to defeat the Dwemer and their God Killing Numidiums? Or will they watch as their worlds slowly fall to the Dwemer Legions?
1. Nisha's Future

**Cearbhail** :

 _Welcome, welcome. This is it. It's finally here, finally the first chapter. I won't lie... I'm messing with you right from the start of the story. I've been waiting so long for this, I need to have some fun with it. I'll get serious, I promise. Maybe. I think... it will depend on which character, and that will determine the tone of the chapters. So... here we go.  
_

 _=^^= Enjoy..._

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[Nisha]

 _Dear diary,_

 _It's been two weeks since it happened. I think today is the 4th of Sun's Dusk… I'm not sure anymore. Ever since the Dwemer invaded… I can't really keep track of the days. It's just been…well… difficult for us. I mean, running and hiding. Trying to stay hidden while the big Dwemer robots run around the streets, all looking for more survivors. It takes a toll on you. I've never seen the Imperial streets so barren before. It kind of reminds me of when I was a little girl… hiding in that crawlspace with Vatu hugging me tightly as he reassured me that Mom and Dad were all right. And then when we crawled out a couple days later… finding out that they weren't._

 _It's just like that now, except we don't have the option to pretend it never happened. With the Dwemer always looking for anyone… it becomes a chore just to find a place to sleep, something to eat. I wish I knew what happened to my brother. I wish I knew what happened to the whole 'defeat the Dwemer' plan. Where are all the Aedra? Where's the army we were promised? I'm scared… and I can't continue living like this. I want my brother… I want to know he's all right too._

 _Nisha Ernard,_

 _Firedrake Revolutionary._

 _…_

The Imperial City. It used to be my home, not too long ago. Not even a year ago, actually. I was born in the city, spent my toddler years playing in the gardens in the Elven Gardens District. And even after the Daedra Lord rampaged through our streets, I spent a couple years with Vatu as we tried to live in the city. Our house was destroyed but we still clung there. People helped fix our house, but as more and more people started to move into the town, two Khajiit cubs living in a house seemed less important than a family of Altmer living in a proper house. So, we were forcibly kicked out. Vatu and I pretty much grew up on the streets after that. He took care of me, making sure I was properly taken care of. Even at the expense of him ruin delving; collecting objects he could sell just so we could eat for the next few days.

Of course, we eventually ended up getting shocked with that Great Black Welkynd stone, and were turned into mages. After we were exposed to that crystal, Vatu knew what we'd be doing with our lives. Using our new magicka to help others, as well as earn a living. That was Vatu's dream. I just wanted a family. A place I could call home. A place where my brother and I would be safe. I never wanted him to do any of this… to get involved with the battlemages, to go to war, to put himself through so much stress that he would eventually… die. But that's the truth of the matter. Everyone I know is gone. Killed by the Dwemer. They were in the Imperial City when it happened. I was in Elsweyr studying with the Firedrakes.

I don't really know what happened but one day, the sky just exploded into a bright purple. When I looked up, I could see a few other worlds floating in the sky above, as well as this even larger bright purple world. I rushed from my dorm room over to Immia's room. She was studying with me at some local academy In Torval for gifted Khajiit magelings. She was talking to her brother at the Lion's Palace, Zhar. She was asking him about the sky. He didn't know what was going on either. No one did. For a whole day… the world basically stood still. And then… it happened.

A giant metallic spider fell from the sky, landing right in the Imperial City, leveling it in one landing; crushing every building underneath it. I watched from a crystal ball as the spider burned the whole town down with its one glowing red eye shooting beams of fire down into the town square. Flying ships drifted down from the purple world over to the Imperial City… each one carrying more and more Dwemer. My brother and his friends all launched themselves into the fight. Taking to the skies like eagles on the hunt. I could see my brother helping Primrose land on an airship. An airship that went down… crashing right into the giant spider. Every battlemage the Empire had went into the Imperial City to fight that spider… and not a single one came back. No one. The Dwemer moved on… and… well… I went to the Imperial City to look for my brother.

I have a psychic link to my brother. I don't talk much about it to people, because it's not normal. But… I can tell when he's in trouble. I can tell when he's in pain. I can sometimes dream about the things he's done… things that are bothering him. And ever since that day… I've been dreaming of him in chains… screaming in pain, spitting at guards… and I _know_ it's not just a dream. He's been captured. He's somewhere in the city. He has to be. And I didn't come alone. Prashin followed me. As well as Zhar and Immia. The four of us came to the Imperial City to look for survivors. We found a couple. The only problem was… they're all kids, like me. They all came here to look for parents and other family members that have gone missing. We all decided to stick together. It turns out… we're not the only ones in the city after all. The Dwemer are still here, and still looking for more survivors. To do what with… I really don't know.

I've been all over the city, looking for any sign of Vatu or anyone else for that matter. I haven't seen any signs of him, or anyone else, but I have seen plenty of Dwemer monsters roaming the streets. I can't tell you how many times I walked out of an alley to see a round orb sitting on a corner open up, revealing one of the Dwemer Sphere thingies. It would chase me through the alleyways, shooting bolts at me. I could barely evade them, and had to use my skills in Alchemy to escape. I learned about this sticky bubblegum alchemy bombs. I use them on Dwemer constructions all the time now, and they really work. They get in all the small rotating joints and pretty much make the Dwemer stuff stiffen up completely. Luckily, they're easy to make too. I just need to chew some bubblegum, stick it in a bottle with some water and a rune drawn on the bottle's top for Expand. It's an Alteration thing.

Well, anyway, while my new friends and I have been searching the city for all the missing residents, we decided to use my old house as a hideaway. The little hidey hole back there was undiscovered. No one even goes into the house. And now… we have a little escape tunnel that leads into the sewers. You can thank Cenranii for that. He's wonderful at Alteration. He's also the oldest of all of us. 14 years old, and he's an Altmer, so you know he's pretty smart too. Good with magicka, good with figuring out what to do next… he's racist… but other than that, he's… I'm not going to call him cool. Tolerable. I will go with tolerable. Maybe. Just perhaps. Ok, I hate him. I hate him a lot. Vatu always told me Altmer treated us like garbage, and between Cenranii and Meiran Dres, a Dunmer boy that grew up in a Dres family plantation, … figure that one out if you don't understand it already, I was pretty much at my wits end.

So, as for what I'm doing right now… as in right this very second, I'm digging around a giant dumpster. It was Meiran's idea for me to go fetch some food out of the dumpster for everyone. He thinks a Cathay like me belongs in the trash. And I'm not out here because I agree with him, but because I'm the stealthiest. Prashin is in the sewers looking for rats for us to eat; and I'm in this dumpster looking for anything else we can use. I wasn't having a lot of luck finding anything though. And to be honest, if I'm really honest… I'm looking for anything I can shove in Meiran's face and explain it off as feeding him. I think he deserves it.

So, I was digging around the dumpster when I heard approaching footsteps. I could hear the chatter of some Dwemer soldiers as they walked over to me. I immediately stopped digging around and shoved myself underneath some of the trash. I was sitting down there for a few seconds before I heard and felt the lid slide up. I tried my best to hold my breath as I felt more trash fall down on top of me. "It was pretty crazy." One of the Dwemer said as he dumped a bag of trash down on top of where I was laying.

"Those flying beasts are pretty strong. To think they'd take down three airships like that." The other Dwemer said. "I don't think we capture them like we did those mages earlier." Capture, mages? Those were two words I was pretty interested in. It was just like my dream; Vatu chained up, spitting at the Dwemer. If that was true, then Vatu was probably a prisoner or something. "Think they'll try to attack the slave camp?" I heard right before the dumpster lid fell down, slamming hard enough to make my head spin from the loud sound.

Slave camp. I had to know more about that. I slowly listened for the Dwemer as they walked away. As they trudged away, I slowly lifted myself up, pushing the lid up far enough that I could see outside. The two Dwemer soldiers were walking back towards the main road leading towards the Elven Gardens District. I didn't see any nearby patrols, so I decided to pull myself out of the dumpster and follow the two soldiers.

As soon as I climbed out of the dumpster, I immediately slipped on my invisibility ring, which gave me a slight Chameleon cover. It turned me invisible as long as I didn't move… quickly. If I did, it would shimmer a bit like air was being distorted or something. And I was trying my best to slow down as the two Dwemer walked off towards the gardens. I raced over to a building, practically sticking as close to the wall as possible. "Attack the slave camp? I don't know. It's up on that mountain so… probably not."

Up on a mountain? Where? Which mountain?

As they rounded a corner, I rushed to follow behind them, trying my best not to trip over any rubble from the smashed buildings. Most of the rubble was cleaned up, but… I think the Dwemer just didn't care enough about all the dead bodies and bigger slabs of building to actually get rid of it. I could see burned remains of bodies everywhere… and I didn't like it. I hated the smell… and to be honest. There's kind of another problem this town faces… zombies.

"Have you been up there? Oh wait… another one." I heard a pulsing sound and a flash of red light. I looked over the building's corner to see him pull the end of his rifle away from a reanimated corpse's head… or what was left of it.

"What are those things?" The other Dwemer asked as they continued down the road.

"Not sure. Think we should bring the body back for testing? Whatever it is… these bodies don't stay dead for long unless you put a hole in their head."

"That's not true. I saw a headless one bumping into a wall for three hours yesterday."

"Three hours? Why didn't you kill it?"

"Placed a bet with the guys. You know… see what else it would crash into. We turned it into a game; setting up colored squeaky toys around it, as well as a rake, some whoopee cushions. We had a great laugh while the thing ambled around."

"How did you end up killing it?"

"We didn't. It fell through a manhole and ended up in the sewers. And we're not paid enough to go down there and kill it." Sewers? The headless zombie ended up in the sewers? Prashin! He's down there! Oh man… I couldn't stand here and listen to this anymore. I had to go help him!

I rushed away from the wall, looking for the first sewer entrance I could find. I found a manhole in the next alley, but I already knew it was there. Ever since we've been in the city, I've made it a habit to know where every emergency exit was… and where it came out to. So, as soon as I found an entrance, I pretty much plugged up my nose and jumped in.

I freefell for a few seconds, falling gently to the ground. I had a robe enchanted with Feather… like Vatu used to carry around. As I drifted to the ground, I wondered where he was. A slave camp on a mountain. Which mountain? It didn't make much sense to me. The only thing I could think of was Kvatch… a town we visited once. It was at the top of a giant hill. I wouldn't call it a mountain at all, but you had to march up a winding path to get up there. The only town in Cyrodiil you have to do that with, really. And it was a pretty nice sized town. I'd have to talk to Meiran about it. He's pretty good at Clairvoyance. He might be able to find out where the slave camp is if I point him in the right direction. I hated that talking to him was an option. He'd probably tell me off, dismissing me because I'm from slave folk and probably wanted to return back home or something stupid like that.

As soon as I touched the ground, I pulled out an alchemist bomb; they were the best thing I had that would kill a headless zombie, I'm sure of it. I made so many of them when we fought the Aedra, I still had plenty in my portal bag. I kept making more and more new stuff, trying to find something I can use to beat the Dwemer, in case I have to. The bubblegum bomb was pretty useful, but I don't know how well it would work against those two up there. I'd rather not find out firsthand. If they figure out anyone is still in the town… I imagine it will lead to the rest of the town being scorched down to nothing. I was lucky some of the buildings still stood, including my old one. At least a few rooms of it anyway.

I kept my ears perked as I walked through the lower sewers, sniffing everything I could. I could smell rats and other things in the tunnel, as well as a few goblins skulking about. But what I could hear was shuffling feet further down. I couldn't tell where it was coming from though, because it was echoing off of every wall, creating a distortion for my spatial awareness.

I opted for just screaming. "Prashin! Watch out! There's a headless zombie down here! Just stay still and I'll find you!" There, that should work. If nothing else, the headless zombie will hear me… wait… how can it hear without ears? Shab. I didn't think of that. Oh well. This should be easy then. It can't see me; it can't hear me; it can't even smell me; it can't even taste me. It can only… feel me. Oh no…

I heard shuffling behind me, and I quickly snapped my head back. And there it was… a teenage Argonian decomposing headless corpse with a severely broken arm snaking out to me. I was almost scared for a second, but then I realized… it really can't do anything to me. It can't bite me… it's one and only arm was shattered in several places, making it so that it can't even grab me. Honestly… what else could this thing even do to me? Nothing!

I pushed the headless zombie from me. "Dude! Give me some space! I'm trying to find my friend!" I wish I had thought of that when I jumped down here. Headless zombies are pretty…pathetic, if you ask me. I've seen them for a long time now; back when Vatu and I went ruin exploring. Necromancers get bored… and so do corpses, I guess.

As the headless corpse shuffled away, I suddenly realized something… this corpse… was animated without the ability to think, to do anything. It felt my walking through the ground's vibrations and then shambled its way over to me. Why? The answer was pretty obvious… it was lonely. It can't harm me, and it knows that. But… let's say you're blind, deaf, can't eat, and you can't think. But you're somehow still very much alive, somehow. I don't get it either. No brain to think… but you have a heart to feel. And this corpse only wanted to be loved. So, as it struggled to walk over to me, I wrapped my arms around it, giving it a hug.

"I'm sorry, headless zombie Argonian boy…" I said as I hugged him close to me. "I'm sorry."

"Nisha?" I heard Prashin say as he walked into the room, dragging a blanket filled with dead rats. "I heard you screaming. Are you…" He glanced at me as I hugged the headless zombie. He smirked as he crossed his arms. "You would."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "He only wants to be loved." The zombie responded to my hug by attempting to wrap his mangled arm around me. "See?"

"Nisha… I think he's trying to strangle you." Prashin replied, shaking his head. "If you really care for it… you'll kill it. I can't imagine the kind of world its living in right now… but it's better off returning to the afterlife."

I shook my head. "No… I'm keeping him. I'm naming him Bubbles."

Prashin rolled his eyes. "Ok fine. But… you know Cenranii is going to have a fit when you come back with it."

…

The walk through the sewer back to the hidden room that used to be our house's little safe house was pretty light on conversation. I told Prashin about what I had heard from the Dwemer soldiers: the slave camp on the mountain. He agreed that Meiran could probably find it easily enough. Bubbles walked behind us, trying his best to follow me, keeping his mangled arm on my shoulder the whole walk back. As soon as we made it back to my house's newly added sewer entrance, we were met by Xokago, our… mix-breed friend. She's… I forget what she is. She looked like a Khajiit… but she has scales…and feathers… and the beak of an Argonian… but has ears like me… and weird fur color like dark orange with a natural blue feathery mane with yellow flowers. She's interesting. She doesn't speak common though. Not a word. We don't know much else about her, except that she's younger than me. Meiran was able to tell us her birthday. 3e 427, 14th of Sun's Height. Younger than me by four months. She pretty much keeps to herself.

Well, she did until I came walking up with a zombie grabbing my shoulder. She jumped right out of her chair. "Kugi'ho 'zombie' fixa ko?"

I glanced over at Prashin. "I didn't understand anything but 'zombie'. Did you?"

He shrugged. "It sounds like Ta'agra but… different somehow. Like the grammar is the same, but the words are all jumbled." He finally shook his head. "We'll figure that out later." He patted the zombie on his chest. "He's a _friend_ … like _you_." He pointed over at her.

She looked either offended or scared for a second because she shook her head and stepped back a bit. "Eei."

Prashin shrugged. "Well, I tried. Good luck explaining this to anyone else. I think they'll likely react the same way."

Just thinking of trying to explain this to Cenranii or Meiran… oh boy… I can hardly wait to hear how I messed this one up.

I sighed as I walked up the ladder, the zombie trying to follow me up. When I cleared its arm, I felt some bit of alarm from the zombie, like it was scared that I was leaving it. I reached over, placing the mangled arm on Prashin's shoulder. Prashin responded by wrapping his arm around the zombie's waist, giving him a light pat on the back. The zombie seemed to calm down a bit as I started walking up the ladder again, coming up to the magic doorway leading to my old house. I pounded three, and then two, and then four times on the door. The door opened up, and I was welcomed to a grin from Immia.

"Welcome back, Nisha!" She said as she reached down to help pull me up. When she looked down, she hissed in surprise, jumping far enough back that she almost hit the caved in ceiling. "What is that?!"

I'm assuming she's talking about the zombie right below me. "A friend. Can I talk to Cenranii or Meiran?"

She looked puzzled but she finally nodded. "If you have to." She mumbled. "Oh, mighty leader! Nisha needs to speak with you."

Cenranii rounded the corner, groaning. "I will attempt a conversation with her." He glanced down at me from the other side of the room. "What did you find on your hunt? Thrown away pizza? Meat? Anything?"

I looked down at the headless Argonian zombie. "I found a headless zombie."

"A _what_?" Cenranii squinted his eyes in confusion. "Really?" He walked over to me, looking down past me to the headless zombie holding onto Prashin's shoulder. "Oh, I'll be mystified… you actually found a _headless_ zombie." He looked over at me. "Why is it still alive?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. The heart wants what the heart wants."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't mean … that kind of alive. I mean… why didn't you kill it? You lot are a bunch of savages after all. Claw first, ask questions later, right?"

I resisted the urge to claw him… that would only prove him right. So, I also resisted a growl as I looked down at the zombie. "No… I don't." I don't even have real claws yet. I'm not telling him that either. "I thought he was going to kill me… and then I realized, he can't. He can't do anything to hurt me. So… why bother coming at me? He's lonely. I thought… we could keep him. I already named him Bubbles. And it's my house, my rules. We're keeping him."

He glanced over at me. He finally smirked, stretching his arms out and cracking his knuckles. "Why not go… a little further? Sure, we could keep him… but how about we resurrect him? Bring him back to life."

Bring my new zombie friend back to life? Was that even possible? "Um… how?"

He pointed to himself. "You might not know this… but my father is pretty good at Mysticism. One of the best, actually. And resurrection is a Master Level spell done only by a person who's mastered three very specific disciplines: Mysticism, Conjuration, and Restoration. My dad… he was part of a team that were all masters of each discipline. They made a spell tome of Resurrection." He reached into his own bag, pulling out a scroll. "I have a scroll that has the spell prepared on it. A present from my dad… in case something was to ever happen to him."

I glanced down at the headless zombie and then back up at Cenranii. "You'd do that? Use your father's gift to bring a zombie back to life?"

He nodded. "Nisha… just because I'm smart doesn't mean I don't understand compassion. You brought home a new comrade. We need more fighters."

"What we don't need is another mouth to feed." Meiran said as he walked over to join us. He glanced down the hole, shaking his head. "And it's a fucking lizard too. Great… more of them.." He threw his arms up. "I knew it. Order a beast to go get one simple job done… and she brings home another pet to play with."

Cenranii glanced back at him. "Just because they're lower than us does not make them our pets. Just stupid." He looked over at me. "If we're going to resurrect him, we're going to need some lavender."

"lavender, why?" I studied Alchemy for a long time… and I never knew lavender was good for resurrection, or anything remotely close to that.

Cenranii shrugged. "I don't expect you to understand this… but… when all this is over, our friend is going to want to take a bath… and I'll be damned if we're making him bathe in sewage without some amount of fresh smelling shampoo to rub himself down with. Speaking of which… you smell pretty rancid. Go diving too far into the trash?"

I held my growl as I shook my head. "Dwemer almost found me. I hid."

He smirked. He reached down to my mane. He touched the side of my head, and I fought the urge to knock his hand away. When he pulled his hand back, he was holding a banana peel in his hand. "Well… I'd say you hid yourself pretty well. You need a bath." I didn't even notice I was covered in trash. Great… as if bathing in the sewer wasn't bad enough. Maybe I'll just sneak out to the lake and go bathing in there. Has to be worth the risk.

…

[Antlanthia]

I sighed as I placed the magazine down. I see the craziest things when I'm on the toilet. Here I was, reading an article on how to get oil stains out of my dress, and all the sudden, I'm thinking about some little cat girl running around the sewers. Do I know her? No. Do I know anything about her? Now I do. Do I care? Eh… not really. Her name sounded familiar though. Nisha… huh… is it the same Nisha we just ran into a couple days ago? I didn't think so. She was much younger, perhaps 11 or something. And she didn't have blue hair. And she had amber eyes, not light blue. Couldn't be the same Nisha I kept saying would invade us.

I sighed as I began reaching for the toilet paper. Feeling the soul crushing regret of eating a burrito was coming back up on me though. Oh well… might as well just sit this out. Who knows what I'll see next? I flipped open my magazine as I felt a rush coming down on me. Oh great… here we go again. My Psionic power is the ability to see the future… and the past sometimes. The only problem was… I had to be doing something very menial to get any reading at all. I could be driving… taking a crap… watching television, or talking to my boss… and the mindless tasks involved in all of those would allow me to see the current of time. It happens a lot when I'm doing simple math equations. Like solving Pi… which is the answer to life. Never forget it.

As I felt the vision fall down upon me… I had to force myself to remember that… in just a few minutes… it would all change. The future would be completely different. Nothing is really set in stone. Whatever I just saw might not even come to pass… or maybe it will. It just depends on if someone really annoying was going to interfere with our plans of conquest. So… in that future… we sacked the Imperial City… and some little girl looking for her brother traveled there. I should remember that. Might come in handy to have the guards trick her into speaking Common, and leak some information for her to follow. Might lead her to her brother… or to me. Depends. I don't know why the Dwemer were speaking Common in the first place. Probably because I already set that mandate out. Which means… that little girl is about to have one heck of a rude awakening.

Oh crap… it's starting again. Ugh…

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 **Cearbhail** :

 _The first chapter beginning with Nisha roaming a run down city? And then it slowly evolved into Antlanthia taking a crap and having a vision of her instead? Oh me... how I do things. That very well might be a future very soon. Pretty sure of it. I like it so far. Might continue with that one. OH well, time for the story to start.  
_


	2. Antlanthia

**Cearbhail:**

 _This second chapter was originally going to be the first chapter, but I didn't like it. I did not like it one bit, not as an opening chapter anyway. It's mostly just chatter and exposition by Antlanthia but... I had to start it at some point. Or I could have started it with Nisha trying to find her brother, two weeks already into the war, and I think I'll be rushing back to that, maybe. I just didn't want to leave the whole merging thing not shown or unexplained for whatever reason. So... here we go.  
_

 _Oh... and enjoy =^^=_

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 _Status Report: Battle of 4e 208, 4th Morningstar_

 _Cardinal Antlanthia, The Cleavuvidium Legion has finished their investigation into the aftermath of the battle in Qronshirlieshan. Let it go on record for the history books that our first military battle with Tamriel forces occurred on 4th Morningstar, 4e 208. The city of Qronshirlieshan has suffered with a casualty count of: 318 civilians; 553 soldiers: 334 from Qromidium Legion, 134 from Dwemidium Legion, 85 from Lamudium Legion; one critically wounded Master General Qronlinshiaran; one destroyed Master Numidium: Dwemidium, complete shutdown of all Mini Numidiums; 9 airships each with a crew of 25 personnel: four pilots, six engineers, 15 shock troopers: 4 from Qromidium Legion, 3 from Dwemidium, and 2 from Lamudium; 128 Orcish invaders; 34 humans dressed in blue leather armor; 19 humans dressed in blue padded armor. That is our casualty list._

 _The city Qronshirlieshan itself has been evacuated. All major buildings have been either crushed by Lamudium or have suffered damages from falling airships. Most civilian casualties seemed to have occurred during the falling airships disaster. No members of any airships have been found alive to report how they were compelled to make their airships appear controlled by the enemy. It would seem our Numidiums were able to successfully kill every person onboard those airships, with the exception of the Orc controlled Convergence airship. How they escaped without any casualties is still being examined by our chroniclers._

 _It is advisable that we do not take any immediate action until we can rebuild our legions back up to their full strength. The enemy so far has been able to elude us, and trick us into blowing up our entire offensive force. It would seem that this was the plan of the High King Dragonborn all along. He tricked us into displaying our forces, and allowed us to make a mockery of our own militant strength against him. I would like to meet this High King someday… he sounds like a worthy opponent. If it were not for this curse, I think I would be able to take him in battle. As it stands, I am ready to make that decision, based upon the observation that we should take a month or so before beginning our attack. None of what I say matters if we cannot reach Tamriel in the first place though. Until Benleirophon can somehow breach Tamriel's dimensional barrier, all of this means nothing to us._

 _Master General Ladieluckinstein._

 _…_

I could already see it. Me… standing in a room with the other Cardinals, all looking at a holographic display of our battle net. The entire plane of the Soul Cairn, brought from the astral planes to the physical planes of Tamriels…. Yes… Tamriels. More than one. I can't explain it, but I can see it. Four Tamriels. All floating in the same sky. And I'm standing there with my two generals from our home town: Cleavenlarnd: Ladieluckinstein and Luckhashappie. Standing around me are the other Cardinals, all each with their two Master Generals.

"So, this has truly come to pass." Ondaisseun would look to me, nodding a thank you to me before turning to face Benleirophon. "Explain how this happened." Ondaisseun would demand of him, as he leaned forward on the holographic display of our new battle net. Ondaisseun was our leader, the reason we rallied to push this invasion this lifetime. For centuries, one Cardinal has stood above the rest, pushing his efforts onto the populace into finding a way into Tamriel. We mostly adventured into the same territory: breaching through dimensional tunnels. We somehow always got close, but never _this_ close. Never four different dimensional barriers all at the same time. And yet… here it was. Four Tamriels, all circling around us like our planet was a sun keeping them in a perfect orbit. And that means… four choices for new homes. Or, only one of them was real and whichever one we choose has to be the real one unless we all want to die if we choose wrong.

Benleirophon would glance at his wrist device, the one he uses to measure the changing frequencies that make up our dimensional barrier, as well as the educated guess of Tamriel's barrier. He's been punching away at the numbers, trying to find a way to either create a machine that can make a pitch that can somehow combine Tamriel's dimensional frequency with our own, which would result in a dimensional breach between our two worlds, or find a way to make his own Psionics produce a vibrational pitch that allowed him to do much the same. He managed the second one. It was his discovery of his ability that allowed him to become a Cardinal of Psience in the first place. He had been working tirelessly to find a perfect vibrational pitch with his mind that would allow him to break open the barriers. The closest he got was letting us to send astral warriors into their world for limited periods of time. The first test… our warriors marched out. Just three of them. We watched as the warriors turned astral… then slowly faded away. They died in Tamriel. That was ten years ago.

Ever since then, Benleirophon had been working on how to breach Tamriel using his Psionics. This was the closest we'd ever gotten in the millennia we'd been trapped in this hellhole. Our army was waiting and willing to get a move on with invading, but… as it turned out, we had a little help from an unnatural source: a Daedric God. The God of Knowledge: Hermeaus Mora. The god of knowledge told us he was aware of our plan, and he liked it. He liked what we wanted to do, because he knew we were smarter than the other races and respected knowledge. And because of that, he respected us in return. He told us about the dragon god, Alduin, and how he would one day return to Tamriel, and when he would, he would weaken the dimensional barriers set up around the world. All we had to do was find a way to lock onto the dimensional breach Alduin created and then… we would find a way to replicate it. And we found several dimensional breaches. Only one of them was from Alduin. The others were left behind by some anomaly. Something that can also open up dimensional breaches as well. And it had opened up many of these breaches we could clasp onto.

Just remembering that, I would look over to Benleirophon as he read off his wrist device. "It would be hard to explain but…" He would shake his head in agony, as if he didn't fully understand his own psience in the way he had hoped. "The dimensional breach I've been latching onto… it turned out to be a tunnel. A massive tunnel, which had several openings and exits. And when I was able to breach that tunnel, and was able to merge our realm with the tunnel's… we somehow ended up with four Tamriels all converging in the same dimension with us in it."

Ondaisseun would shake his head, confused about it all. "Are you suggesting that… this anomaly has somehow connected four different Tamriels all into one massive web of inter-dimensional tunnels?"

Benleirophon would shrug at the suggestion. "More like… one tunnel with several exiting platforms. I don't fully understand it, but I can see it…" He would tap his head. "in my mind. The tunnel that exists… the four exiting platforms… the four dimensions all connected by the same tunnel. The very same tunnel I've been trying to connect us to. And now… we're through. We've made an entrance for ourselves, and I used that entrance to pull our planet through to the host dimension. I did not take into account that we would be pulling in the other dimensions into this dimension as well… but…" He would glance at the holographic display of the five worlds. "it would seem we have four different Tamriels to choose from."

"And four sets of gods…" Ondaisseun would groan as he looked back at the display. "And that would mean… we might have to fight four different armies, kill the gods four times for each god, just to make certain they're truly dead… And we're only one army."

"Sir." I would say as I finally raised my hand. Having many times to review what I already knew of our future, as was the case with following the little cat girl around the sewers… I knew we already had this war under control. And I knew how we needed to proceed as well. "I believe we are ready. I have already seen this, and am seeing it right now. I know… I know what we need to do." Images of the future would come to me. Visions of seeing us on the first Tamriel. The Washimidium Legion leading the charge into the Imperial City, capturing the hostile forces, and bringing them back to their captured Imperial City for processing and interrogation. The Qromidium Legion taking the fight on Ruby's home world, watching Qronlinshiaran take his revenge on her once and for all, punishing her for all the pain she had caused him. The Hongkinidium and my own Cleavuvidium Legion taking our armies to the source of the anomaly to investigate the source of all these tunnels… and finally… the Lamudium Legion taking the fight to the final world, the darkest one of all. All I could see in that world were shirtless Dwemer men standing in the oily rain as they posed while glittering in the morning sun. I could not see anything else worthy of mentioning other than that.

As I brought my own attention back to our own world, I would point at the holographic display, trying to focus my thoughts back on the present. "There are four Tamriels… and we have five legions, five Great Cities, each with an army grand enough to conquest a whole realm and destroy the gods. One legion for each dimension, with the exception of two legions that will head to the source of the anomaly. I volunteer to go to this location with Ourpheush. We will find the anomaly that connected these four Tamriels together and we'll make certain to capture it. If we can find out how the anomaly formed… we can somehow use it to connect even more Tamriels… or force Aetherius and Oblivion to come to us. Take the war to the gods _that_ way. Force all those four gods to become just one version of themselves."

Ondaisseun would smile, nodding his head at my suggestion. "I like that. So, here's what we'll do…"

…

I shook my head as I was suddenly brought back to my reality. I was still sitting on the toilet with a magazine in my hands. Huh… that's odd. While I usually do go venturing into the future while using the bathroom, it's not every day that I venture through two different futures all at the same visit. Normally, I would have just sat there, continuing my viewing of the cat girl and her escapades… but I guess I needed to see what would happen… an hour from now. That's just stupid. I don't need to see what I will live through in a few minutes. Now I'll just be bored through the whole thing. But it was nice to see that the future had not changed in one instance since I first saw it four years ago… the very act that forced Ondaisseun to allow the first woman to become a Cardinal in the first place. For four years I've been telling him of this moment, down to the very detail of my own vision. And now… today… it will finally come to fruition. Everything we've done, we've done to get us to this moment. I did not want to get stuck on the toilet during this moment, but… well… I can't see _that_ clearly. My body is still as random to me as anything else. I may be able to read time, but for me to divine when my coffee will hit me back… even I'm not _that_ strong.

I sighed as I closed my magazine, forcing myself to wipe off before exiting the bathroom. Before I left, I checked my uniform for any missing ribbons or anything abnormal with my uniform. I didn't find anything missing so I exited the bathroom, not surprised at all when I heard Ladieluckinstein scream out in surprise. As I walked outside, I watched as she tripped on her untied bootlaces, falling down right in front of me. Having already seen this before, I reached out, grabbing her by her shoulders before she face-planted on the cactus sitting next to the bathroom entrance. That would have been a very painful way to die right there.

"Oh my massive brain!" She cried out in horror. "I almost lost it." She looked up at me, smiling. "Thank you, Cardinal."

Ladieluckinstein. Her name would have you believe she was lucky. You would be wrong. Her family, for as long as we've known, the women have been cursed with some sort of unlucky streak. We can't explain it; we can't use instruments to find it… and we certainly can't cure it. Ladieluckinstein was named so because her parents wanted her to have as much luck as possible growing up. She didn't. And yet… she is perhaps one of the strongest warriors I've ever seen fight. She is severely unlucky, and even though she sometimes trips on her own bootlaces, I know she would have instinctually snapped out her arm and saved herself at the last second. She's fallen so many times already that her muscles are well-trained in saving her before she can even process the fact. She's lost so many battles that she has become a master tactician by learning how to never lose a match. She learned how to use her misfortune as a gift. She might not be able to beat other Master Generals in straight up battle, but she can beat them in any planned aggression. That's why I have her on my side, running my army as my second-in-command.

My third-in-command is Luckhashappie. Go ahead, make jokes. He's clumsy… he's impatient… he's a douche. All of those are true. He's also… very… annoyingly… lucky. And that luck helps balance out Ladieluckinstein's unhealthy unluckiness. Those two, when they converse about battle strategy, he will often blather out some random action… and Ladieluckinstein will suddenly say 'That might work.' And it always does. Even with her complete unlucky strike, just having that douche giving her random advice, it always seems to pan out effectively. He is as tactical as a Master General needs to be in the same way that a potato is filled with calcium. He has no ability of tactical assessment at all. Tell him the enemy is right in front of him with spears and a large rocky river behind them, and they're downhill while we're uphill with archers and sunlight behind us… he'll tell you to run straight down at the spearmen while shooting arrows into the ground to use as springboards as we jump onto the arrows to launch ourselves into the sky… to fly over their spears… and land on the other side… right into the river. To protect us… from our arrows…

Yes. He's stupid. But he's very lucky. And we tried the arrow thing, against my better judgment. It worked. I don't know what happened, but us jumping on the arrows started an avalanche. It buried the spearmen, and somehow we hit some hidden spirit geyser. We were launched into the air while the avalanche buried our enemies. It worked. That's how lucky he is as a tactician. Doesn't mean it's tactically sound… but it does work… sometimes. And Ladieluckinstein can come up with the most clever plan I've ever seen, and something will happen to mess it up. Like one mission where we were hiding in a wooden horse to sneak behind enemy lines. The wooden horse… the wheel fell off, and we ended up flipping over, breaking the horse open. And there we lied there, in the broken boards of wood, as enemy soldiers surrounded us. We almost captured the flag too. Almost.

Oh yeah… since we can't leave the Soul Cairn, each town is at war with the other towns. We test our military might against the other towns in hope of learning new and exciting methods of warfare that we can use when we finally reach Tamriel. I'm undefeated. Only because I can see what my enemy is going to do before they do it, and then have my two generals plan out their actions. I'm no tactician. I'm a diviner, sure… but I'm no soldier. That's why I have them. I tell them where the enemy will be, and they plan out the battle. And I tell them if it will work and how the enemy will respond. Call it Advanced Risk without the enemy even playing yet.

I was brought back to the present again as I started helping Ladieluckinstein back onto her feet. "No problem."

After I set her back up, she looked at me uncertainly as she gestured to the report in her hands. "Ma'am, the status report you requested?"

"Ah, yes… thank you." I took the folder from her. Inside were pictures of the dead soldiers, enemy casualties that were lined up before they were taken to the soul converter to have their bodies added to the construction of more Centurions. It was already too late to think we could just build another Numidium, let alone fix the one we lost in the battle three days ago. If we were going to be leaving for Tamriel today, as my visions have suggested to me… then… we won't have time to do anything else.

I glanced over the reports of the destroyed airships, wondering if we could make due with what forces we have left. Ondaisseun would never admit it, but we were utterly beaten three days ago. I had seen everything go our way, and I saw glimpses of various ways the battle would play out. So many ways it could have happened. Since the enemy had a 'do what you want' policy, each action manifested in someone different from another person. When you plan an attack, your units move according to an action already dictated. When someone fights with that initiative, it's easy for me to see it. Like the airship owned by the Orcs. I could see it and do something against it. But when a teleporter who decides on a whim to do teleport anywhere she wants… it becomes much more difficult. I see multiple paths she could or would take. I can't say I could see all her teleportations at once… but that's what it felt like. Each teleportation left a mark on history, but I could see them all as one occasion. Every single one of them. It's weird. And it's only with teleportation. You could call it my weakness, if I even had one other than spacing out to random visits to the future once in a while.

The report went into more details as to which Legions suffered the most losses, and which ones were officers, as well as which squads and platoons needed merged to compensate for losses. It was stuff I didn't think I would have to deal with. This seemed like information the Master Generals of the other legions would have to deal with. I bet they were all receiving the same reports right about now.

I checked over the folder one more time before passing it back to Ladieluckinstein. "Thanks for the status report. Get with Luckhashappie and get our airships ready, and make sure Cleavuvidium is ready to be launched as well. I want our full Cleavuvidium Legion ready to deploy in 6 hours' notice."

She arched an eyebrow at me. "May I ask why?"

Nodding my head, I placed my magazine back on the magazine rack sitting outside the bathroom door. "In exactly 12 minutes… Benleirophon will finally be able to connect our universe to Tamriel. And not just one Tamriel… but four of them."

"Four of them?" She shook her head, as if she couldn't believe it. "What? How?"

I shrugged. "I don't even know that, but I plan on finding out. The only thing I've seen is a standoff with me and some blind girl… and a legendary battle of wits and… seeing the future to determine how our fight would pan out." There is something about seeing myself see a future with a constant shifting force… a battle of someone that can also see the future. And just the thought of us two planning out our offensive ended up being nothing but predicting how we would fight each other and how the other would respond. I don't even know how the vision ends… I've never reached the ending. Not like I can control glimpses into the future like those. Not until I finally meet her. I wonder if _she_ is the anomaly. If that was true… then when she set all this up, the four Tamriel, then that would mean… she wanted to bait us into a four-way war. Whoever she is… she must be a real conniving person, someone to be feared and respected. Someone I would want to meet on the battlefield. The truest battle to ever occur… between two seers. I can hardly wait.

Ladieluckinstein sighed at my explanation. "But… what does that have to do with our dimension merging with four others? Any idea what event might have caused it? Ben has been trying for a long time, but got nowhere. It must have been something on their end. But… what?"

Just as she suggested it, I found myself standing in a room with a giant glowing pillar. Lying nearly unconscious on the ground was one of those cat people, Khajiits I think they're called. I knew Nisha when I saw her. Not the tiny Nisha, but the older one with the blue mane that traveled to our dimension to save her dad. She was the only thing that could keep us from invading Tamriel… and here she was… lying in defeat. And standing above her was… was that a Daedra god? He was dressed in what looked like an exotic suit. And he had white blanked out eyes, carried a cane, and was looking right at me.

"Oh… would ya lookie here!" He glanced over to me. "You're just in time for the show!" I don't know if he was able to see me, but the way he winked at me, I could guess that he could. Stupid gods… I really hate them. They defy logic. And logic cannot be defied!

Nisha was stumbling to pick herself up. It looked like she was slowly dying from some poisoning. As she tried to push herself off her back, she glared up at the sky. I looked up as well, seeing the same thing I saw in all my visions: my world and three other Tamriels all floating in the same space. It appeared that Nisha's was the second Tamriel… not the one I invade then. She's not the anomaly. I invade the third Tamriel in the set.

"Sheogorath…" Nisha hissed at the Daedric god.

"Oops… that… that wasn't supposed to happen. Or was it?!" The Daedra laughed at the idea, shrugging like it was a mistake. "I totally mixed that up. It doesn't _save_ the world… it _opens up the dimensional barriers to the Soul Cairn when applied to a barrier-prevention thingy_ … like one of those Magicka spinny orb thingies." He screamed as he looked at Nisha. "Did I forget to mention that? Oh well! Let Chaos ensue!" He screamed. He laughed manically as he turned to leave. "Oh…" He looked back at Nisha. "I forgot to tell you my master plan, didn't I? You see… ah, why ruin it?" He walked over to her, bending down to pat her on the head. He ruffled her mane, actually grabbing a bunch of it as he lifted her off her butt. I watched as Nisha screamed a little as he lifted her up to her feet.

"Why?" Nisha's broken voice barely whispered the word.

"Well, Ruby." Oh right… that's her 'real' name. I forgot about that. "Let's just say… I needed to change the script. Your friend went and changed your fate! Saved your dad… kept you from going crazy! Kept you from becoming my favorite little pet in the Shivering Isles! I had to get you back somehow! And this!" He looked up at the sky. "Killing yourself, and your whole nation! That's as crazy as it gets! And, let's not forget something else!" His eyes flashed. I watched as a bunch of mist formed out of nowhere. Out of the mist strolled a man dressed in desert apparel. He looked Redguard.

"You…" Nisha's eyes conveyed an experience with the Redguard, as if she knew him… and hated him immensely. I could see the fear in her eyes though, as if she knew meeting him would be the death of her. I wonder if she is a seer as well. Can't be very good at her job… even though she clearly outsmarted me in the Soul Cairn. I would make her pay for that that.

Sheogorath nodded at Nisha's dismayed expression. "Aye! One of my faithful. Abused as a child, gave into his madness… killed his parents. Became a mime… and then a pastry chef. And then… a slaver. But only because I told him to! He wanted to make me proud of him! To accept him! And to do so, I needed you. I needed Ashana. I set you both up to be where I needed you to be… and he collected you. Instilled what I needed to break you, to make you fall into madness. And then… that blasted Nord Asger had to happen! Chaos servant, my butt cheeks!" He screamed to the sky. "You see, Ruby… You were always destined to be mine… because I said so. Now, die, unhappily knowing that I was pulling your strings the whole time. Let it fester in your mind; give into your madness; and then…"

Sheogorath suddenly exploded into mystic goo. Nisha fell to the ground, this time not moving. She must have died. That's some good news at least. Nisha won't be a problem for her… and she deserved it. We tried to warn them about the Daedra; they are vile creatures that have no conscious about who they kill, or who they use. They deserve what's coming to them, and Nisha learned that the hard way.

From the corner of the room I could see a Dunmer strolling into the room. She had a tiny stick pointing at the spot where Sheogorath stood just a second before. Her stick was glowing as if it was on fire just a second before. The Dunmer looked over at Nisha, cursing as she raced across the room. "Ruby! Don't leave me!" She said as she wrapped the dead cat in her hands. As I looked up at the sky, I think I had my answer as to why this happened. This happened because… the only thing that could have stopped us was now dead. And now… I know what I need to report to Ondaisseun. When he learns that Nisha is dead… I think we'll be set for our invasion. I can hardly wait.

…

I shook my head as my vision wore off. I was still standing there with Ladieluckinstein. "Ma'am… are you back yet?" As I turned to look at her, she nodded. "Yup, you're back. What did you see this time?"

"Nisha dying by the hands of Sheogorath. He opened the way for us." I reported to her. "He's the reason we will have four dimensions to war against."

Ladieluckinstein shook her head. "One of the Four Pillars of Evil? I wonder why he would do this…" That was a good question. I wish I had an answer.

I shrugged. "Daedra of Chaos, why else? Because he's foolhardy and thinks he's invincible. But… we'll prove him wrong. We'll kill him, just like every other Daedra." Sheogorath just dug his own grave. I couldn't wait to put him down in it. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why we're targeting the gods the way we are. Ondaisseun suggests that the gods will try to destroy us as soon as we venture back to Tamriel, and it is true that every time we've found a way back, an Aedra got in our way. We lived in a special Aetherius pocket dimension… and that meant the Aedra could have let us leave at any time, but they didn't let us. They forced us to live here… for so long that we can't even remember what our ancient cities look like. What our ancient machines looked like. Are our inventions greater than they were before? I couldn't wait to wander our derelict cities and rediscover our past; if not only to compare it to how we live now.

But the question still remained. Our entire race was about to commit war against the Aedra and the Daedra. Every single one of us. And I couldn't help but wonder why. I've seen people who've begun wars with us in the hopes that we won't invade Tamriel. Pockets of resistance showing up everywhere, even with Master General Qronlinshiaran's daughter, as well as the brother of Master General Grevranna. There were many others that all started up resistances against us. Some were engineers that tampered with Numidiums… or blew up our smelters. Anything they could do to halt our progress. It was in vein though. I saw most attacks in my town before they happened, and I silenced the perpetrators before they could act. It was the same in other cities though. We advanced slower than we hoped for, but I believe it won't matter in the end… we'll still win.

"Well, ma'am. I shall go get the troops ready to deploy." Ladieluckinstein nodded her farewells to me. Right before she was about to turn around, she glanced uncertainly up at me. "Are you sure today is the day?" Right on cue. Just as she asked the question, our dark purple sky filled with floating souls suddenly erupted into a dark night sky, filled with stars… and four other planets all floating above us. Well, I knew there were four planets, but at the given moment… we could only see two of them. One set as a setting sun… the other already almost fully risen.

The sudden arrival of the planets caused a loud sound, as well as the entire planet shaking like it had just been torn apart. It was a hard crash, strong enough to throw me off my feet, if I hadn't already braced myself. I managed to put my back to the door, stabilizing myself as I grabbed onto Ladieluckinstein. If her misfortune had control over her… I fear she would have ended up in the cactus plant again.

The hard shaking lasted for a few seconds and during that time, I kept myself and Ladieluckinstein braced against the bathroom door. As soon as the shaking stopped, Ladieluckinstein glanced over my shoulder. "What the great minds was that?" She screamed. Her face blanked away as she saw the setting planet through our massive balcony window. "Is that…?" She glanced over at me for a second before pushing off me to look out the window.

"The future…" I responded. I had a feeling I'd be hearing those words again… very soon.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

 _Next chapter, we meet some new characters. Just thought them up last night at work. Had a great laugh with my co-workers about it, actually. I told him about what I wanted to do, and had their names. He loved the idea and we just spun with it, creating all sorts of puns and whatnot. You'll see. You'll see what we were talking about soon enough. See you then.  
_


	3. The Plotline

**Cearbhail** :

 _So... I'm going to have so much fun. I introduce a new character, a very important character. He's so important... he's related to the Plot. Hehe...  
_

 _=^^= Enjoy..._

* * *

[CSL Juniper Urshien] 8th Eveningstar, 4e 208

 _Captain Urshien's Log,_

 _Today is the 8th of Twilight Breaks, 7E155. Today was supposed to be a standard day. I reported to my unit as I usually do, and we began with normal training operations. Ever since the invasion Qronshirlieshan had, everyone has been on edge. My troops are more than rearing to get back to a normal training routine. Since we lost our barracks when an airship fell down top of it, the QL has moved itself to a temporary housing in the nearby village: Lankhmarpolitan. Ever since then, we've had daily training battles where we simulate invading their town. Today was supposed to be a repeat of that. And we were in the process of invading Lankhmarpolitan right as the ground began to shake. I thought it was another invasion from the Tamriel forces, but it would seem that… something else was going on. We've all known that someday, somehow, we would finally reach Tamriel. And… when the ground shook, we all looked up into the sky, at the bright sun that glared at us. And right in front of that sun… three planets circling overhead._

 _We were all amazed by it. Our astonishment was immediately pushed aside by an immediate summons to Dwemeris. Our play fighting had finally come to an end. My squad and I jumped into our THC A-12. We flew down to Dwemeris with the other squads, alongside those from Lamudium Legion. As we sored through the skies on our squad mobile hovercraft, I got a good look at Qronshirlieshan. It was a mess. I found myself gripping my rifle tighter as I imagined paying back the same forces for what they did to my hometown. My squad fells much the same way._

 _And now… here we all stand. We're awaiting our new orders._

 _Captain Juniper Urshien._

 _…_

"You think the Plotline will show up?" Nebu, one of my soldiers, whispered to me as we waited in our formation.

I found myself nodding. "How could they _not_?"

"Excuse me?" Captain Plot whispered harshly from behind me. Captain Jane Plot was from a very wealthy and respected family, which owned a very successful business called Plot Industries. They specialized in a lot of the military technology we use, including the schematics for the Master Numidium… which is broken, by the way. "What does _my_ family have to do with _this_?"

Could I tell her? I mean… her family is well known for its dealing with our military… and how they bought a General and Major position for the heads of their families. The Patron of the family was General Frank Plot, but we just called him the General Plot; his wife, who has the fakest breast I've ever seen, was Major Lucia Plot… which everyone jokingly called the Major Plot, a reference to the fact that in most anime… the girl with the biggest breasts is called the 'Plot' essential character. And that's what the Plot family, which everyone calls the 'Plotline', was… a joke to us. They were rich, and they thought they deserved a medal for it, and a place in our military.

Now, Captain Jane Plot was different. She fought tooth and nail to get to her rank as Commando Squad Leader, CSL. We trained in the same academy ever since we were children. Her parents bought her into the academy, but she earned all her medals. She earned her spot as Captain. I earned mine too, but my parents couldn't afford my ticket to the academy. I was chosen at birth, thanks to some proper genetic screening or something like that. They explained it to me a while ago, but I don't think you can evaluate the best possible career path for an adult, especially the Commando unit, by measuring brainwaves of a newborn baby.

Having my own difficulty finding a reason not to share my thoughts, I forced a smile as I looked back at her. "I'm sure General Plot will show up. It's in his character to be a part of all our military events. I bet he'll even fund our campaign."

Jane nodded a bit as she caught on. "Yeah, I guess." She shook her head. "I just wish Dad take this more seriously. He's so…" Stupid? Pretentious? Ignorant? So many words I could choose from, and I still wouldn't get close to the full picture with him.

Before Jane could finish her thought, we were interrupted by the sound of many reporters flashing their cameras up at the auditorium stage. I glanced up to see the Six Cardinals of Psience walking onto the stage, followed by their Master Generals, all eleven of them. The eleventh was the Supreme General, Ivanova Plot. Much like Jane, she earned her position. She was Frank Plot's sister, but she fought her way into the army, and was rewarded by the leader of the Cardinals, Ondaisseun, with a position as his personal Supreme General. She ran the entire army… more reason as to why the Plotline pretty much rules over our military. And man, I've seen Supreme General Plot work her mind on the battlefield. Even the Cardinal Antlanthia can't beat her in a match, and Antlanthia can predict the future. Even with every edge, Supreme General outmaneuvers Antlanthia's forces every time.

Cardinal Ondaisseun waved to us as he approached a podium with a microphone. "Good afternoon, everyone. As I'm sure you've all witnessed by now… we are floating in the same orbit as Tamriel. And not just _one_ Tamriel… but four of them."

The reporters went crazy as they all started snapping pictures, forcing their cameras onto the stage. All I could hear was a massive wail of question after question. And Ondaisseun was just standing there, impassively listening to the wails of the reporters, like it didn't even phase him.

He went on as if they weren't even here. "Yes, four Tamriels. There was an anomaly we've been tracking for a while, an anomaly that breached the walls of Aetherius and Tamriel. Using Benleirophon's psionic ability to break dimensional barriers, we've been able to find a way to attach ourselves to this anomaly, and use it to pull us into Tamriel's universe. Unfortunately, it has also pulled in the other Tamriels that this anomaly was connected to."

The reporters were going crazy again, but this time, Ondaisseun actually pointed to someone. "Yes, you."

"Samthana Quintha, Channel 12 News. Cardinal, is there any information as to what this anomaly is? Is it the work of the gods, or was it something more mundane?"

Ondaisseun glanced over at Cardinal Benleirophon. As if on cue, the cardinal stepped forward, answering the question. "The anomaly seems to have the same effect as the recorded Aedra Lord: Auriel, the God of Time. So, we're possibly looking at one of his agents…"

"If that is true… could this be a trap from the gods?" Samthana asked.

Ondaisseun nodded gravely. "It is very possible that we're walking into our doom, which is why we're only sending in our Commando Units to start with." Great… that means I'll be on the first drop, with little supplies, no backup, and no available intelligence to run with. Always wanted to be the first sacrificial lamb for this invasion. "We've been using Antlanthia's ability to track down the gods' known whereabouts. We've been able to find several of the gods already. The majority of the Aedric forces seem to have settled on the first Tamriel… which we will send a great force to deal a massive blow to them. The world itself seems to have been ravaged by war upon war. The citizens seem more like hardened soldiers than civilians. We will proceed cautiously, but we plan on taking out their capital hold as we fall into their orbit. We will strike a massive blow they will not recover from, and therefore… secure our drop point."

There were more and more shouts of questions, but it was Samthana that got the question again. "Cardinal… are you suggesting that you will be committing war upon the populace of these worlds? I believe our taxes have been going to the Numidiums to help build god destroyers… not mass genocide machines."

Cardinal Ondaisseun nodded to her question. "It is a harsh reality to swallow, but unfortunately, we must assume that the locals will not take nicely to us killing their gods. Their gods will probably try to rally their supporters, play the victim card on all those they deem powerful and gullible. We will be providing a mass warning upon landing that we are there to kill the gods… not harm them. But… we will kill any who try to oppose us. If at all possible, we will take prisoners. Rest assured… this will be a mercy mission. We expect little heavy resistance once we take down their initial wave. Nothing can stand up to our fleets. And once they realize that… we will have already won."

There was a collective silence over the press as they took in Ondaisseun's words. It took a few seconds before Samthana raised her camera back up at Ondaisseun. "Is this the same _fleet_ that lost to our inferior brothers, the Orcs?"

I think everyone could see the shift in Ondaisseun's expression. He did not like being reminded of Qronshirlieshan's destruction. "What happened four days ago was an unfortunate accident, and we assure you, we have prepared for future incursions with our Orcish brothers. We assumed that Daedra rubbish turned their brains into barbaric mush… if we had known they still retained the same level of intelligence as us… we would have been extra cautious when dealing with their 'Horde'."

"So, it's true then… the Orcs are really Dwemer?"

Ondaisseun nodded. "I had Hannuhkahahah study the remains of the Orcs that invaded us. They possess the same genetic theme as us, but twisted by a malevolent force… a Daedra's touch. A final mockery by the so-called gods that supposedly protect us. The Orcs that exist today are the remnants of our brothers that managed to stay behind when we initially vanished from Tamriel. The brain of the Orc still has all its intelligence centers intact, however… there is a poison that numbs this part of the brain, making their ability to think cognitively at our level utterly rubbish. They still retain our smithing skills, it would seem. Their ability to adapt to our technology seems to be genetically implanted as well. I wondered how the Orcs managed to fly our airship, highjack our radios, and somehow control our airships. It would seem that at least one Orc, possibly their leader, is somehow resistant to his Daedric manipulation, retaining his true intelligence. It would stand to reason, we can help our Orcish brothers, if we don't kill the rest of them first."

Samthana seemed content with Ondaisseun's answer and so she shrank back into the crowd. The other reporters were more or less quiet now. I just wanted to get started in the invasion. Standing here in formation was fun and all… but I have places to go, new things to see. Like Tamriel. No more cold steel, burning hot magma. Now… trees and nature… and then I'll shun all of those to live underground and stare at a computer screen for the rest of my life. Eh… who am I kidding? I'm a commando… I'll be forced to go out and make sure the inhabitants of these worlds don't try anything stupid on us.

"So, as I was saying before we got side-tracked." Ondaisseun nodded down to Samthana appreciatively. "We have found massive amounts of Aedric forces in the first Tamriel. We will send the Washimidium Legion to hunt down these Aedric forces and deal with them. With Guilgameavh's ability of Tonal Silence, any Aedric forces will be reduced to crawling mortals. We will wipe them out one by one. The Second Tamriel seems to have an abundance of Daedric forces, which will be the focus of Qromidium Legion." Great… my legion. As if half of it wasn't already blown to shreds in the invasion four days ago. We don't even have our Mini Numidiums now. I guess we'll make due with what we have. "There is a soft spot in the Great Forests, in the homeland of the wood elves. We will drop Qromidium Legion down and set up camp while preparing to deal with the Daedric forces there.

"The third world is the location of the anomaly that caused all of this to be possible. I'm dispatching Hongkinidium and Cleavuvidium Legions to find the anomaly. If it is connected to the head of the Aedras… that blasted dragon Auriel… you can bet we'll put it out of our misery. The fourth world seems deprived of all Aedra and Daedra. We're thinking of settling on this Tamriel once we are finished killing the gods once and for all. As such, Lamudium Legion will be heading up to the fourth world to see about making sure our transition will be peaceful once we arrive. The world there seems… darker than we expected. We don't know what happened to make their gods die but we do know this… it's a perfect world for us. And now… we have a special announcement from the Plotline. Our expedition is funded by the Plotline so… here is General Plot to answer some questions and to give our troops a send off."

General Plot waved as he walked over to the podium. "Hello, hello, hello. Well, well, well…" He nodded to all of us. "It's finally here. You know, for years, I've funded this enterprise of mine. My great-great-great granduncle founded Plot Industries, and ever since, we've been building for a better tomorrow. It's time to make Dwemeris great again. We're going to go to these hostile environments and make those gods pay. We'll build a massive wall, a beautiful wall, and it will have all sorts of lasers and whatnot built on top of it… top of the line stuff, I'm telling you. And best of all, we'll make those gods pay for that wall. I'm a master at owning a business… I should know, I own Plot Industries. And people are always asking me, Frank Plot, do you know how to lead people? And I say, yeah… I know how to lead people. I lead people every day. I lead people across the street, to their work stations… everywhere. I'm great at leading. Just ask my lovely daughter…" He pointed to Jane, who rolled her eyes at him mentioning her. "I helped make that. And now she's a commando in the elite Dwemer forces. That's because I only bring winners into this world. I'm awesome, everyone knows it, and we're doing this."

General Plot nodded his head vigorously. You see… this is why I can't stand the Plotline. Their egos are just too much to deal with. And to buy his way into leadership… horrible. Samthana didn't seem all that impressed either. "General Plot, it's been rumored that your only goal out of funding this expedition to Tamriel is to use your Numidiums to gather the precious metals and herbs of Tamriel, and use this as a way of expanding your already massive company. Rumors of you purposefully allocating tax payers money for the use of inventing new biological weapons meant for killing trees has always been an interest to Channel 12. Would you like to give your reasons for these new biological weapons?"

General Plot just stood there for a few seconds, staring off into space as he tried to think of something to say. "Well, I won't deny we're doing it. For all we know, the trees of Tamriel might be vicious monsters that can move on their own, act on a hive mind, and use a god's influence to fight a personal war with our Dwemer forces. But, that's not the point. The point is… I don't like you speaking ill of my character. You know… I think once this is all over, I will pass a law that will allow me to sue the media for slandering my name. And force all the influencers of these malicious rumors to work in the coal mines." He glared down at Samthana.

She smirked as she looked up at him. "Sir… if ever a day were to dawn, I'd gladly retire from it." She turned around and started to leave. The rest of the reporters watched her as she left. She turned to face her cameraman. "And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Our glorious conglomerate leader: Frank Plot… threatening the media: protectors of the truth. Is this the beginning of the end for freedom as we know it? This is Samthana Quintha, Channel 12 News, signing off."

I watched as Samthana stormed off, her camera crew behind her.

"Dad is such an ass." Jane whispered from behind me. I'm starting to think she hated her father more than the rest of us did. Why Ondaisseun allowed the Plotline to have as much influence as they did have was beyond me, but I'm guessing it's because they can just buy whatever it is they want. It was almost like their money was their… _trump_ card. Heh? Heh?

I glanced back at her. "Told you he'd be involved with this."

She shrugged at hearing that. "I was hoping he'd stay out of it."

General Plot continued on as Samthana started to leave. "Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted, the Plotline has funded this operation, and so, I announce the newest military innovation: the Plot Mobile Plot Troop Plot Device. Or PMPTPD for short." Oh yeah… he really liked putting his family name on all his things. It gets confusing when you have to go order a milkshake at Plot Burgers. If you want a mixed cone of vanilla and chocolate… you have to order the Plot Twist. Oddly enough, that also the name of the Plot family's secret martial art form. "And don't forget why I've put so much of my money into funding your campaign… you must find and kill all the gods. And, if for whatever reason, you stumble onto slave labor… or perhaps a really nice looking village, let me know. Not that I'll go and claim it as my own personal villa… just… you know, intelligence reasons. Enjoy, have fun, and don't forget to wear your sunblock. That sun will turn us all sorts of shades of orange."

"Ugh… Dad…" Jane groaned behind me.

Supreme General Plot walked up behind her brother. She practically threw him away from the podium. "Thank you, General Plot for your uplifting words." She scolded her brother. She addressed all of us with a strong glare. "You are now released to your Master Generals. Commando Units, you are to report to your dropships immediately. Your Master Generals will give you your briefings on route; your gear is already prepped for you on your dropship. Dismissed."

Just like that, everyone started falling out of their formations. And just like that… I'm now in charge of my own squad. I glanced over to my Master General, General Grevranna. She was out of her armor, which allowed me to meet her eye-to-eye. She gave me a reassuring nod as she privately dismissed me and my squad. I nodded back to her and turned to face my soldiers. There were five of us, each of us the rank of officer, even though my soldiers were all lieutenants. Each of us had the potential to lead our own squads, but that's what makes commandos special. We could operate on our own… putting us in a squad just make us that much more awesome.

I nodded to everyone. "Ok, we have to report in to our dropship. Qromidium should be prepping to launch as we speak. Supreme General said that our supplies were already loaded and ready to go." Leave it to the Cardinals to know ahead of time that this was going to happen… and not to bother letting the rest of us know ahead of time. It would have been nice to get a last nice long bath in before they shipped us off to the unknown. Perhaps say goodbye to my family.

Just like the trained soldiers we were, we raced to our dropship. Our dropships were labeled with our unit name Qromidium and our squad number… ours was Squad 1. Everyone was quiet as we climbed into the dropship. I've been in them before, and they weren't all that fun to ride in. The word 'dropship' wasn't some confusing term for us. It wasn't a ship you flew around in. It was literally what it sounded like. It dropped… from the airships. They were outfitted with defensive Gatling on both sides, as well as missile canisters loaded on the wings. The ship was designed to 'fall gently' to the ground where we would use it to set up an operating base. I'm guessing they'll have all six squads localized in the same area. With General Grevranna and Qronlinshiaran working together, I was sure they have everything well-planned out.

And just looking inside the dropship assigned to us, I was pretty sure I was right. Radio equipment; extra weapons, shock trooper armor plates in case ours go missing somehow. Plenty of rations for us to snack on, and the plating for our housing units that we would have to set up; and plenty of other supplies that included medical supplies, trenching tools, old texts of edible plants and animals. Everything we could need for a few days of recon. I just hoped we were ready for this. We've been training as hard as we could, trying to become strong enough that we could outsmart, outmatch, and outmaneuver any enemy. Four days ago… we thought we were invincible. Four days ago… we were proven otherwise. It was time for revenge. I want to show our enemies that we're not as weak as they pegged us to be. We will win.

I led my squad into our dropship. I glanced over towards 2nd Squad's dropship. Captain Plot was ushering her soldiers into their dropship as well. She cast a glance at me, nodding a farewell as she slipped on her helmet. Time to do what we were trained to do. I looked down at my helmet. Once I slip this on… there's no going back. Not like there ever was to begin with.

With a heavy sigh, I threw the bucket on. I stepped inside the dropship, closing the loading door behind me. I turned to my soldiers. "Ok, Venus. You got this, right?"

Remula Venus was our trained pilot. Every member of a trained commando squad was trained on how to fly various flying aircraft, however… we did have specialists for a reason. No one could fly one of these falling buckets like Venus. If we're going to fall like bricks… I want Venus guiding us. It will be the difference between life or death at this point.

Venus nodded to me. "You got it, Captain."

I took my seat, buckling myself in. "So, how is this going to work?" I asked her as she walked over to the pilot's seat.

"I push this button. The ship is already set to the coordinates we're heading to. I just make sure we don't hit something on the way down." She sat down and nodded to us. "Here we go."

As soon as she hit the button, we were launched from our platform. I've trained on these things so… the initial launch wasn't hard for me. It was the fact that… I'm leaving home. This was it. This was what we wanted. And I'm going to be one of the firsts ever to touch Tamriel soil in our generation.

Our dropships have windows, for the very reason so that we can see the battlefield below us before we jump. It's a nice tactical advantage to have. And my eyes were glued to the windows. I could see the other dropships all flying alongside us. I could see the other five on the left side of us, falling into the same Tamriel as us. I could see the other sets of dropships heading to their Tamriels.

Good luck, fellow soldiers. We ride into the unknown.

I found myself gripping my rifle tighter to my side as the ship began to shake. We were already leaving the atmosphere of our planet. Soon, we'd be floating around in space. Once we hit space, our rockets would practically die off, letting us drift off towards Tamriel at a crawling speed. It would be perhaps hours before we arrived.

"I hope you all used the bathroom before we left." I called out to my soldiers.

 _"Hey! I didn't know you were on this channel."_ Captain Plot called over my helmet receiver.

"I think we all are linked to the same channel." Venus reported. "Easier to communicate with each squad."

 _"G… lu…"_ A broken connection from one of the other Tamriel squads came through my headset before turning to static. It sounded a lot like Captain Kasearch from Lamudium Legion. I guess we'll only have local comms chat then. This was it… we're really on our own now.

"This sure is exciting, isn't it?" Nebu asked from beside me.

"Exiting Soul Cairn atmosphere. Keep your buckets on until we're all clear." Venus reported to us. While our cabin had circulated air and would keep us filled with clean air for at least ten hours, even one hole could deplete our oxygen supply in matters of minutes. And we wouldn't know about it until it was already too late. There was one final pull and I felt my crushing body suddenly let go. All that pull from our planet was gone. "We're clear of the atmosphere."

There was a pulse from a domed projector hanging in the middle of our dropship. An image of miniature General Grevranna appeared in the middle of the floor. "Here is your mission." She faded away into what looked like a 3D map of a massive wooded country. "This is Valenwood. Your dropship is coordinated to drop into this area… a local town known as Falinesti, a town that has been taken over by a race of Altmer that have taken a dictatorship over the current Empire. The Aldmeri Dominion is not to be trusted, and will probably attempt to control us, let alone destroy us, if given the chance. Treat as hostile. The local inhabitants of Valenwood are mostly a race of elves known as the wood elves." A small image of what looked like a small built elf appeared overhead of us, rotating. "They are a savage race of cannibals, according to our records. They apparently live in the trees of Valenwood, and have a peaceful coexistence with the country they live in. They are predatory elves that would rather consume a whole population of endangered animals than touch one leaf on a tree."

Another image of a strong ape-like creature popped up. "These are the Igma. Our intelligence has little to offer on these illusive creatures, other than the fact that they adore the Altmer. Since the Aldmeri Dominion is in control of Valenwood at the given moment, you can expect that these Igma are serving with the Aldmeri Dominion. Our scouts report that the Dominion used their influence over these apes to pacify their rule over Valenwood, in an event known only as 'the Purge'." So, the Aldmeri Dominion would probably be giving us a lot of trouble. Good thing I have just the thing for them. My favorite plasma rifle.

The image of General Grevranna appeared. "Your mission is to take the city of Falinesti by any means necessary. Set up your operation base, and signal back to us. When we have an all-clear signal, we will launch the rest of Qromidium Legion. We're in short numbers, so we can't take the risk of falling into a trap. Your arrival time is 18:24. You have two hours. Take this time to run over basic instructions and make sure your equipment is all set and ready to go. Good luck Qromidium Commandos. Think fast." Just like that, she was gone. Our mission briefing was complete.

"We have that recorded, right?" Nebu asked.

Venus nodded. "Yup. We can replay it as many times as needed. Even pause it if we have to."

I nodded to the rest of my squad. "Ok." I glanced back at Venus. "How's air pressure?"

"Stable. No leaks."

"Buckets off." I ordered. I pulled my helmet off. When everyone was ready to hear me, I gestured to my rifle. "Ok, we're going to make sure our rifles are ready to go." Because… when we hit land, we're going to be using them a lot, I'm sure.

* * *

 **Cearbhail** :

 _Oh, the Plotline... I'm using my trump card too soon... too soon.  
_


	4. Vatu's Day Off

**Cearbhail** :

 _I'm so sorry, everyone. I got a new laptop and... I've been adjusting to it. Having to add everyone's name and everything is a real bother. adjusting to a new keyboard is more so... and getting used to this new screen... blah! I love the new speakers though. Anyway, I hope I start getting faster at this. By the way, I like this chapter. Next one... things start to get interesting.  
_

 _=^^= Enjoy..._

* * *

[Vatu Ernard]

 _Vatu's Log,_

 _Today is the 19th of Frostfall, 4e 004. I just want to put this in my mission report before we even start the debriefing. Today I'm heading to Rimmen with my girlfriend, Junna, as well as her brother, Daan, and his girlfriend, Trinjje. We're heading to Rimmen in order to find and destroy a band of criminals calling themselves The Trade. We don't know much about them, other than the fact that they're soliciting drugs to the people of the newly rebuilt Rimmen. The city is supposedly under the Mane's protection, and as such, has a localized military watching the streets. We don't know why the military isn't doing its job, but that's why we're going to Rimmen. To find out._

 _I have to say, I love doing this kind of stuff. Going to places and fighting bad guys. I missed the thrill of it… without having to worry about going too all out. Without having to worry about losing control. Now… ever since I stepped into that magicka absorbing machine… I've never lost control of myself. I love being able to let myself open up. There is a slight problem… one I didn't really notice at first. My magicka… it's pretty much gone. I still can do spells, but I can't do them nearly as fast, nearly as deadly. I haven't told anyone yet, and I haven't told my sister either. She mostly uses her potions anyway, so I doubt she'll even notice a difference. And I'm mostly known for my small spells, enchantments, and being a recon scout. So for me, no one will ever really notice the slight change in my magicka capacity._

 _Well, we're here. I guess I'll just get changed into my costume. Oh yeah… since no one can know who we are, in case die or something, we're altering ourselves with Alteration and throwing on costumes. Like super heroes of the old bardic legends. Should be fun. My girlfriend is dressing up as a Khajiit legend: Lunar Splice. I'm her immortal mate: Solar Flare._

 _Battlemage Vatu Ernard._

 _…_

"Vatu!" Somewhere in the back spaces of my mind, I could hear Junna scream my name to me. I didn't have time to turn and talk to her. I was too busy.

I didn't want to stop. I wanted to keep going forward. There were so many of them… and they were everywhere. Arrows, spears… everything you could imagine falling down around me. And I was loving it. Every second of it. The sheer madness of The Trade trying everything they could to stop me. And they couldn't. They just couldn't. For the short second I heard Junna call for me, I paused. And when I did, I felt six or more arrows slam into my torso, almost strong enough to knock me off my feet. I barely felt it.

I glanced down at my chest, seeing the arrows sticking out of my chest. I found myself chuckling as I grabbed one, pulling it out with minimal effort. The archers from the nearby buildings were stunned in horror as I pulled the arrows out right in front of them, all while smiling and laughing. I was having so much fun. As I started to bleed, my enchanted healing bracelet started going off. Restoration magicka flowed through my wound, closing it instantly. I didn't really need the bracelet though. I'm a Sengar. And that means… I can't die until my enemies are dead. And I'm a mage… that just adds to my Sengar awesomeness.

Looking up at the rooftops of the massive inner city of Rimmen, I can see that it wouldn't matter how many arrows I was pelted with. There are so many Trade members left that I won't be exiting my Sengar state any time soon. They can shoot me full with arrows, and as long as my head is not severed from my body, or my heart pulled from my chest… I'll be just fine. And I'll refuse to exit the Sengar state until my Restoration magicka fully heals me. I won't die today. Arrow after arrow was slamming somewhere in my body, and I didn't feel a thing. I even received a few to my knees; a stupid attempt at slowing me down. Behind me were burning buildings, corpses with severed limbs, blood flowing down into the sewer drains. That was a lot of fun. I missed enjoying these moments.

I head a scream in front of me and a push forward. It was hard enough that it drew my attention back to my front. Standing right in front of me was a young Bosmer holding a long yari, one of which was currently slammed into the front of my chest. The Bosmer looked shocked to be standing there, looking me in the eyes as I smiled at him. I grabbed onto the pole, locking his hand onto mine, and I pushed it further into my chest. My blood shot out, hitting him in the face.

"What are you?" He screamed at me.

I found myself smiling as I leaned forward, meeting him face-to-face. "I'm death. And I'm here for you." I pushed even further into the lance, sliding right through it to him. He screamed in horror as I ran my claws right through his throat. I fed my Flaming Palm spell through him, setting his face on fire as I did so.

Behind him were several other spearmen. They looked terrified of me. Most of them were Bosmer, which meant that this town was taken over by a primarily Bosmer gang. The Trade, huh? I wonder where it originated from? I could see some Redguard mixed in with the Bosmer; the first thing I thought of was a slave gang. Only… these were mercenaries making money off of selling skooma. Not the first band of criminals I've been called in to deal with… definitely won't be the last. But, if Redguards are involved, all bets are on slavers. And when it comes to Khajiits… we're usually the slaves.

Just thinking that made my claws itch. And I felt like scratching them. I charged past my burning man to the next spearman. He thrust out at me in fear; I danced around his attack, snapping my hand out at his spear. Using a little Telekinesis spell I learned from Davilia, I tossed the spear hard enough that it flew from the spearman's hands. The spear took off like an arrow as it soared into a nearby window, piercing a Redguard in the chest. It hid hard enough to break through his steel plating. Just for a little fun, I charged that spear with some Destruction before sending it off. I might not be too good with magicka, but when it comes to Enchanting, I'm still one of the bests. I filled that baby up with my favorite spell.

I could see the explosion from the window. An explosion of chocolate milk. Not the most dramatic, or deadly, spell in my arsenal, but I could sniff out that the majority of the slavers in the room were lactose intolerant. And it was really think in lactose. That's right… I put a Conjuration spell on that spear, one that teleported chocolate milk in through a portal.

Archers from the room were already crying out in dismay as they tried to flee the room. Besides the possible hundreds of other archers firing down at me from six or so buildings, I imagine I'm in the last stretches of this conflict. Time to end this. If I get the ones in the street first, I won't have to worry about any getting away.

I let out a loud war roar as I poured more of my magicka into my Sengar state. The war roar, as I call it, is a loud wailing pitch that seems to leave my enemies quaking in petrified fear. And as I let it roar, I saw everyone in front of me come to a dead stop. They were too scared to even imagine running away at this point. The spearman right in front of me could barely take a step back before I plunged my fist through his iron plating. Before I knew it, my arm was popping out the other side, dripping heavily with blood seeping from the guy's once beating heart.

I pulled my arm back, tossing the guy aside as I turned my attention to the other swordsmen standing in front of me.

"Vatu!" Junna called from behind me. "Wait up!"

I didn't want her to get in the line of fire. I had to protect her. There were too many of them. I needed to bring this down. Just imagining her getting hurt made me want to get this over with now.

I flashed forward, reaching the first six or so swordsmen before I could even blink. I didn't hesitate as I unsheathed my claws. Fire and Shock danced off my claws as I twirled around the swordsmen; arms and legs falling off in sections as I carved through them. Armor reduced to ash to a Rust spell, swords turned on their masters with Telekinesis. It was only a few seconds, but by the time I was done, there was nothing but blood and limbs in my wake. I am a battlefield god. I am a battlemage.

I felt more and more arrows slam into me from all sides as I came to a stop. By now, I had to look like a porcupine. The archers were getting desperate to hit me. And I was getting annoyed with them. Having just wiped out the streets, and strategically placed myself in the middle of Trade territory, I figured now was as good a time as any. I turned my attention to the buildings holding the archers. I brought up my staff, one that was filled with as much Fire based Destruction magicka as I could manage in a week's time. I kept it for… special occasions like this. I scanned the first building: a four story apartment building… filled with nothing but The Trade members. I aimed my staff at the building, and it drew a collective curse from the inhabitants as they all tried to run and hide. All the burning buildings behind me… those were my fault.

One pull of the staff's trigger and before I knew it, the building was exploding with Fire magicka. The inhabitants were screaming in agony as they were suddenly caught on fire. I turned my attention to another building, then another, and then another. Before I realized it… there were no more arrows falling down on top of me. There were no more archers. There was no more Trade territory. No more downtown Rimmen. Just me… standing in a pile of corpses… fire surrounding me… and Junna screaming at me.

"We were trying to help everyone!" She screamed from right beside me. "Vatu! Hey! Are you listening to me?" She pushed on my shoulder, trying to get my attention.

I was busy pulling out one of the arrows stuck in my ribcage. I… I didn't want to say anything. I didn't want to look her in the eye. I know what I did… I was there. I was in control. I couldn't really remember how much time had passed; I couldn't really remember the full details of how I did what I did. I was still getting used to be an actual Sengar. The numbness of the battle fury was slowly getting easier for me to handle. Before, I couldn't even remember the battle. I just relived ancient memories of other Sengars I was related to. But now… I'm in control of the battle. And the whole… everything, the fight, the chaos, the loss of pain… it was getting to me. I was losing control while being in complete control.

…

I was in control.

That's my problem. When things like this happened, I could blame my incapability to control my actions because of my blood-rage. For a long time, I was incapable of controlling my Sengar state, which was a bloodline that turned me into a rampaging blood-thirsty animal that would blindly slash anything in front of him with the added bonus of not feeling any pain given to me. My skin would grow resistant to magicka, swords, arrows. I rampaged through an entire army of necromancers without even blinking an eye once. I slaughtered whole villages of zombies and lichs without even sustaining the smallest of injuries. My body… when the Sengar state takes over, heals itself very quickly. Being a mage while being a Sengar is a very good thing… it practically makes me invincible… in a way that other Sengars haven't been. It made me a war machine, one that can do… whatever he wants.

Looking at the burning town all around me… was it really the Sengar state that was to blame for my actions this whole time… or was it me? I was in control. I let myself do this. I let myself lose control.

There was another shove on my shoulder. Junna was still trying to get my attention. Her brother and his girlfriend were right behind us, silently watching me. Silently judging me. I couldn't run and hide. I wasn't that guy anymore. I told myself I'd go all-in. Junna is my mate… and I don't want to hide from her. I can't hide from her. I can't do this to her.

I turned to look at her. She looked me in the eye, as if searching my soul. She finally nodded. "Ok… I understand. But, Vatu, you told me you would only use the Sengar state to draw out the archers and skirmishers. We were supposed to let the Leos do the majority of the building infiltrations. We wanted to save this city with the least amount of bloodshed as possible. But… you…"

She gestured to the burning buildings. The ripped up corpses on the ground. The blood staining every building wall that wasn't currently burning to the ground.

I nodded. "I know, Junna. I don't know what happened."

"It started when that archer shot at me." Junna crossed her arms. "Vatu, I know you're trying to protect me… but I'm a mage too. I'm not a battlemage, true… but I'm learning. I'm getting better. And, let's not forget, I'm also pretty fast on my feet. I have basic knowledge of Restoration and Mysticism. Not to mention Scrolling. I'm not a great warrior, and I'm not very good at fighting. But… but!" She paused. "I forgot what I was trying to convince you of."

"That he doesn't need to protect you." Daan said from behind her. "And you failed."

Junna turned back to smile at her brother. "You're the best, brother." She turned to look back at me. "Listen, Vatu. You promised to teach me how to fight. These…" She waved her hand around Rimmen. "was supposed to be a combat lesson. You know what I learned? Stand completely still, get shot up with arrows, and then blow everything and everyone, even innocent people, up."

I sighed, my tail drooping to the floor. "Oh… yeah, totally forgot about that." The past four months, I've been teaching Junna everything I knew about magicka. Everyone was helping her: Davilia, Erandur, even Primrose. That was shocking to hear, because I hear Primrose hated the fact I was dating Junna, but she gritted her teeth and helped teach her Restoration. Erandur was helping Junna with learning martial arts, as well as learning some offensive combat magicka. Davilia was helping her learn Conjuration and Telekinesis. And Primrose was teaching her how to make healing potions, and how to heal more effectively. Junna was slowly becoming a rounded battlemage. She quit the Firedrake Academy in Torval for some reason. She hated the things they taught there, or something like that. I never did ask her about that.

I turned to look at her, really look at her. Junna was one of the panther breeds that lived in the forest. They were a rare breed most of the time. She had really soft matte black fur with what looked like a bleached white mane that stretched halfway down her back. I would think it was bleached if her brother didn't have a similar mane color. She had small gray jaguar dots dotting randomly throughout her fur, which I loved. I was a tiger breed, which meant I was all orange with black tiger stripes. I looked like my mother. My sister was lucky… she looked like a lion, as our father did. She had a few stripes on the back of her neck but that was as much tiger as she had in her.

As I found myself thinking of my sister, I turned my attention down to my c-ball. I just noticed she had left me a message. Opening it up, I could see her face on the screen. She looked upset. "Brother… don't get angry. I've been taking Combative Destruction with Immia and… well… we're going to this old Khajiit ruin and we're going to look for some old sources of magicka with our professor. Sounds like fun but… it might be dangerous. Thought I'd tell you before you hear it from Zhar or something. I'll call you when I get back. Should only be a few hours. Love you… maybe."

Her face blinked away. I sighed as I looked up at Junna. "Think we could swing by Torval and see where she went before we go home?"

Junna nodded. "Sure, but… Vatu. We need to talk. Like really talk. This is the fourth time this month you've gone substitute blood-rager on me. Something's bothering you. And… I think I deserve to know what it is. I want to help you."

I shook my head. "Junna… it's… well…" What could I say? I didn't even know what to tell myself. But, I had to say something. Anything! I'm not hiding from her. I'm not hiding from anyone anymore. I'm a new person. I'm different now. I'm in control of my own actions! "I can't explain it. I've been…"

"You've been running for so long, hiding yourself from others for so long… that you don't really know how to be free from your own cage of fear and doubt?" How does she do that stuff? "If I were to guess, you're probably too caught up in the moment. You feel free for once, and since you enjoy controlling your own battles without fear of losing yourself, you're losing yourself in the moment of pure bliss that comes from being an invincible tank."

Did she really have to phrase it like that? That made me sound a lot like an irresponsible jerk more than anything else. "Um…"

Daan started to smile. "Wow, sis. Will you just tell him already?"

"Tell me what?" I looked over at Daan. He was smirking as he shook his head at me.

Junna grabbed my chin, pulling me to look at her. "Vatu… there is something you should know about me too. I'm empathic. Like… one look in your eyes and I can see your thoughts… your feelings… your very soul. It's why I liked you when I first met you. It's why I knew you liked me too. I can see the struggle going on inside you. And unlike Primrose, I don't just like you because I need to heal you. I like you because of _who_ you are, not what you have going on inside you. But that doesn't mean I can't help you help yourself."

"She was always a bother." Daan said from behind her. "Always telling Mom and Dad how I really felt about their drinking problem. And always pointing out my crushes to everyone. Anyway, my lovely sister never really knew when to keep her mouth shut, and even went to a few classes on how to keep her mouth shut, and how to control her empathy but… well… a few secrets from the teachers slipped out of her mouth and she ended up caged at home. No one in our village really liked her, and always avoided her eyes."

Junna nodded. "Yup… so I ran away from home." She smiled madly. "And went to Torval, signed up at a firedrake and then… well…" She waved her hand around Rimmen. "You met me on my first class assignment. My squad was going to use me to read the eyes of captured prisoners to determine their innocence. You see… what I have is a special kind of personal magicka. One they could never really teach to someone else. I was born with it. And unfortunately… Torval Academy wasn't really able to help me with it, like I was hoping they would. So, someday… I'm going to create my own academy, dedicated to specifically helping others learn their personal magicka. My gift to the world. Using my empathy, it should be easy for me to help teach others."

That was something. "Ok… so…" I looked from her to Daan. "Why tell me this?"

Junna pushed me lightly on my shoulder. "Because we're dating, dummy. You should know what you're getting involved with. You can literally never lie to me. I can see right through you. Do you understand?"

Come to think of it… I did think I understood. I could never hide anything from her… even if I tried. She was exactly what I needed if I wanted to pursue this new me. Even if I tried to revert… she would never let me. She could see through me every second she looked at me. That was very scary, actually. My whole soul stripped bare for her to gawk at… to poke at. If I ever pissed her off, she would know exactly which buttons to push, which unknown fears to expose… it was a lot to take in, especially for an introvert like myself. I was almost thinking of running away right now; turn my gaze from her.

I knew Junna was reading my thoughts because she was sighing and closing her eyes. "Vatu… don't shut down on me now…" She pushed me lightly on my shoulder again. "Listen to me… I know I know you! I'm telling you because I know you can handle it. I like you because… you can handle me. Any other guy and suddenly… I'm some kind of predator or something. I've even heard of people suggesting I feed off them… like some emotional vampire or something like that. But, you're different, I can tell. I promise… I'm not as bad as you're thinking I am."

Easy for her to say… she doesn't have to deal with someone constantly reading their thoughts. I can't glance at her for a second and know everything about her.

"It's not like that, Vatu. It's not like I can see what you're not thinking… only what you are. If you plan on thinking your whole past for me… then I will never know about it. And! I can only see anything if you're looking me in the eye. Direct eye contact: that's how it works."

So, it wouldn't be all the time; I guess it wouldn't be so bad. Not to mention… I don't want to hide from her. I want her to know all about me. I want to able to stand in front of everyone and know that I'm not hiding anymore. That I'm not pushing myself away from others out of fear of what might happen to them. I want to be better; I want to be more than what I was. And Junna made me feel more complete.

As if reading my mind, she wrapped her arms around my waist, pulling me in for a hug. "Thanks, Vatu." She placed her head on my shoulder. "I knew you would understand." She looked up at me, smiling. "So, how about we go see your sister?" She looked back at her brother and Trinjje. "Do you two feel like joining us?"

Daan nodded. "Sure, why not." He glanced over at Trinjje. "You feel like coming along?"

She smiled, wrapping him up in the same hug Junna had me in currently. "Of course!"

Time to go see what my sister is up to.

…

[CSL Bzeirn Ushopia]

 _"Listen up, Washimidium Commando Squads. You are currently ten minutes from hard contact with what looks like the Ayleid capital city, which from all intelligence reports is now in control of the Aldmeri Dominion. Those intelligence reports are now suspended, since the timeline of this era, according to Cardinal Benleirophon, is from the year 4e 004. We have no reports of what this era was like, so you'll be on an intelligence gathering mission. Since your squad will be entering what could be potentially a hostile environment, we're sending Washimidium along with you. Your mission: secure the Ayleid capital city at all costs, locate any and all potential threats, lock down any armies as peacefully as possible, and then proceed to destroy the Aedra currently claiming this realm as their own. Back up will come as it is available. Good luck."_

The cabin of our drop ship shook as we entered Tamriel's atmosphere. The first Tamriel was the closest to our planet, so we all knew that the Washimidium Legion would be the first to meet any hostile forces. It was also one of the few planets we had little intel on, other than that all the Aedra were calling this realm as their last standing ground. While all the Daedra were claiming Tamriel 2, and the strange time-ripping anomaly claiming Tamriel 3, Tamriel 1 was still the biggest threat that I could possibly think of. The Daedra were a nuisance, but their power waned in retrospect when compared to the Aedra.

And the Aedra had to know we were coming to meet them. They were gods, after all. My brother and sisters may claim that we're the true masters of this world, but when I think of the Soul Cairn, and how we were captured inside that whole purgatory realm just for forsaking the Aedra… I shudder to think that we're not just walking to our deaths. A suicide mission. And my squad is going to be one of the first six ones to hit ground zero… the Ayleid capital of Tamriel. Good thing the Ayleid supposedly worshiped the Daedra. Maybe we'll get lucky and not go stomping on a god's playground.

There was a bright flash from outside the window in front of me. The sun was glowing even brighter than it was when we first launched. I wonder if it's just that much brighter in Tamriel. The sun… Akatosh, I think his name was. Was he warning me of the dangers to come? Were we really falling into a death trap? The sun flashed again, as if confirming to me what I already knew.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Rhorz, our medic, shifted on her butt as she looked around the cabin. "Does anyone else think we could have waited a day longer? If not just to do a proper recon of these worlds?"

Hyzori, our explosives expert, looked over at Rhorz. "If we did that, then it would only give the Daedra and Aedra that much more time to prepare for us. Better to hit them fast and hard."

"That goes both ways." I responded back. "We don't know what we're dropping into. So… keep your heads on a swivel. Shoot anything that even looks at you funny. I know we're supposed to be on some mercy mission, and don't be fooled, every move we make will be watched and scrutinized by the media… so, if any of you down a civilian protestor… drinks are on me, because we're all going to hang together."

"Drop in two!" Rzunalick called from over his shoulder back at us.

"Lock and load!" I screamed. I slammed my stun rounds into my resonating rifle. Since gun powder was hard to find in the Soul Cairn, we had to learn how to make new ballistic weaponry. Sure, crossbows are great and all, but we learned how to trap souls into the many soul gems that fall into the Soul Cairn. We learned how to harness this soulic energy, much like our Numidium Projects, we learned how to make miniature magicka cannons in the form of pistols and rifles. It ran on soul gems, which we learned to how make them so that they don't crumble anymore. They just deplete. We know how to fill them back up if we need to. Each rifle is outfitted with a soul chamber. We'll capture any souls we take on the battlefield. Those souls will feed our gems, little by little.

"Dropping now. Brace!" I gripped my handlebar as tightly as I could. This was it… this was it. We're going to war. And there was no stopping us. Time to take out the gods. Once and for all, or die trying.

* * *

 **Cearbhail** :

 _And no... this is not the same Commando as last chapter. Pay attention, please. It will get confusing, I'm sure, but I'll try to keep it as not confusing as possible. I have one POV for each Commando unit for each Tamriel. Washimidium is in Tamriel 1, Qromidium is in Tamriel 2. I'm doing Antlanthia for Tamriel 3, and possibly one of her commandos too. Not sure. And for Tamriel 4, I don't know yet.  
_

 _Oh... and next chapter, Akatosh enters the fray. And so do the battlemages. Hopefully. Depends on how long the fight with Akatosh lasts..._


	5. Imperial City Falls

**Cearbhail** :

 _I want this chapter to set the tone of this story.  
_

 _=^^= Enjoy..._

* * *

[CSL Bzeirn Ushopia]

"Ok, everyone. Before we hit our target area, I just want to say one thing: we all know we're hitting the middle of the old Cyrodiilic Empire: their capital city. We are not alone: there are five other squads and we're landing in different sections of the town. And even though it will just be us on the ground, we will not be alone: our airships will be overhead and will arrive within an hour. We have one hour to secure the town, but we have a little help. Our village's Numidium will be there with us, giving us covering fire and taking on any Aedra that might try to fight us." Just thinking of how the sun was shining just a minute ago, I wouldn't be surprised if the God of Time decided to come join us. "Are there any questions, concerns before we land?"

I looked around the cabin. The whole ship shook violently as we descended to the ground. My squad mates sat there silently looking at the projected map of the Ayleid capital city. I bet they were memorizing our drop spot, looking for areas of cover to dash to once we hit there. I scanned the map as well, taking note of the circular development of the town. It all centered around the massive tower, walls upon wall separated the tower from the rest of the town.

"Any questions at all?" I glanced from the map back to my squad.

Hyzori nodded. "Just one." He pointed to the walls. "Our objective is to secure the tower in the middle of the town, correct?"

More or less. "Our objective is to capture the whole town, and get it ready for a world war. That being said…" I glared Hyzori, our demolitions expert… right in the eye. "No. Blowing. Up. The. Walls. Got it?"

Hyzori sighed as he leaned back on his arms. "So, no fun for me then?"

I shook my head. "If we run into any old structures that denote any worship of any deities, you may blow them up at your leisure."

Hyzori laughed. "That'll be fun."

Rhorz looked over at Hyzori, nudging him with her arm. "Before you blow up anything, you will let me take a look at it. We might learn more about the lore and history. We were told to gather any intelligence we came across."

"Ha." Abrec, our very silent heavy weapons expert, snorted as he looked away from the map. He pointed to a small weapons shop. "Magic… weapons. Funny joke, no?"

I looked at the virtual map. There was a giant sign that read "Rindir's Staffs". I nodded over to Abrec. "I think we'll need to make stop there. Could be a lot of intel on what kind of magic the current age practices. That reminds me: everyone, check your sonic nullifiers. Make sure everything is in order. We will be fighting mages, and if they get the chance to use their magic, we might end up losing. Better safe than sorry."

Abrec nodded. "Checked before we boarded." He pointed to our drop zone on the map. "We set ours here. Other squads do the same in their areas. Form massive perimeter around town, nullify whole town. Until I get set up, keep everyone away from drop zone."

I nodded to the other squad members. "Ok, we have a definite plan. Everyone ready?" When everyone nodded, I looked over to Rzunalick. "How close are we?"

He looked back at me. "Sir… we've been on ground for a while now." We were? We were in a drop ship… emphasis on _drop_. We should have felt the landing. This wasn't the first time we've used drop ships to simulate capturing cities. Dwemer cities in the Soul Cairn did practice battles on each other all the time, and using drop ships for commando units was very popular. We've always felt a stopping pulse upon landing.

"How did we not notice?" I asked Rzunalick.

"After the massacre a couple days ago, the drop ships were outfitted with new landing thrusters. We were shown just how weak our metal was with landing when our airships crashed into town residential buildings. We thought it would be necessary to protect what vehicles we had left. As such… that last shake you felt was us touching down. I did not want to interrupt your briefing." Rzunalick responded. "We have civilians surrounding our vehicle, and what looks like armored soldiers making a perimeter." He looked back at me. "We have someone approaching us. Think our Translation Intelligence will work?"

I shrugged. "It seemed to work with the invading hostiles a few days ago. The Cardinals and the Master Generals are the only ones that speak Common so flawlessly. The rest of us will have to rely on this translation intelligence to speak for us." The translation intelligence was a small smart A.I. that was able to pick up anyone speaking Common and translated it to our ears as our own language. It was pretty flawless, from what I've been told, and works almost instantly. Thanks to the same A.I. whatever we said back was translated back to Common. Time to find out if it works. "Well, time to see if it works."

I nodded to everyone as I stood up. "Rzunalick, open the door." Our pilot nodded.

I slid my helmet on as I waited for the cargo door to slide down. My squad mates were doing a last second check of their equipment as they readied their own helmets. Time to find out how this would go down. If this can be resolved nicely, well… good. If not. Well… not so good.

The cargo door was slow to falling down, and even as it did, I could see an armored woman waiting for us on the other side, slowly waiting for the door to completely fall. I waited at the top of the ramp, looking down at her through my reflective visor.

"I am Supreme General Justice, but Supreme Justice will do just fine." The waiting woman said. "I am the General for the Imperial Army. We have been warned of your invasion four months ago, and we've been planning for your arrival. As such, I am aware you come as hostile invaders. I am giving you this one chance to step down before the entire Imperial army descends upon you and your own. What say you?"

I took a few seconds to let the translation sink into my head. If what she said was true, then that would mean that someone tipped off Tamriel 1 to our arrival… something we didn't even know about until today. Four months for them… and one day for us. "Explain how you knew."

She smirked. "The gods sent messengers. They spoke of your arrival, your willingness to destroy them. The world stands ready to repel your attack. We will not let you get away with deicide." So, that was their answer then. Oh well, I had hoped we could have just let this slide without coming to any violence.

"Are you sure you cannot just let us do what we came here to do?" I pleaded with her. "Let us destroy the Aedra and the Daedra and we'll be on our way. No harm will come to anyone. We'll scout out a location to settle our families down in, perhaps one of the older Dwemer cities in Hammerfell or perhaps Morrowind."

I waited as she thought of her options. "Sorry, we can't. But, I will give you one chance to leave. Put down your weapons, and we'll let you walk away." She smirked back at me. "Your little… I don't know what to call that thing you came here in… but whatever it is, you just take that back to wherever you came from and then… well.. never come back. If you return with peaceful intentions, our Emperor will begin negotiations for our terms of allegiance between our two empires."

I wonder if that would work. I looked back at our pilot, who doubled as our Communications Technician. "Open a link between me and Master General Tommiayun."

 _"Yes, Captain Ushopia?"_ I could hear Master General's voice in my helmet.

"Sir, we've come in contact with the Imperial Legion's Supreme General. She is offering us a possible allegiance in exchange for… not killing their gods. Sir, we're talking about possible countless lives being spared at the expense of us not killing the Aedra. How should we proceed?"

 _"I will consult our Cardinal. Hold one."_

I was left standing there for a few seconds with dead silence. The Imperial General continued to stand her ground, staring me dead in the eye, quite the feat with the reflective T Visor I had covering my face. More and more soldiers began to form up behind her, each one carrying either bows or spears aimed right at me. My own squat mates were formed up behind me, aiming their own rifles at the Imperial soldiers. I looked back at them, turning off my translation A.I. "Weapons on stun." I glanced at a few loose clothed people carrying long staves walking towards us. Mages, had to be. "Nullifiers ready to be armed."

I switched my translation back on. When I turned back to look at the Legion General, I saw her looking at my exchange between my soldiers. "Ready, men. Watch for any signs of movement."

"I'm waiting for word from my higher up." I said to the legion general. She seemed to understand that I had orders and had to wait to give the response. I think both of us wanted the same thing, and yet… I think we both knew what the answer would be. When lives are at stake, when it's your life… you compromise. When it's not your life… but lives of those you would use to gain what you want… does it really matter if those lives are spent or if they are not? Politics. Always politics. And yet, in the future, and the present, the politicians will likely speak of our sacrifice, honoring us and saying we did what we had to do… because nothing else could have been done with such a savage enemy. They will say that the returning veterans will be treated as heroes, but rejected years later, stating that we've been honored enough for everything we had done to secure our families' futures. No… there would be no surrender, I'm afraid. Our leaders, who are not among our ranks on the battlefield, would never settle for anything less than the destruction of the gods.

We stood like that, knowing what would happen, for a few minutes longer. All the while, guards were evacuating civilians out of the town across the bridge. Good. I didn't want to take any lives, and having some of them run away saved me the time of chasing them all down later on once we secured the town's tower and army. As the townsfolk became less and less, and the amount of guards surrounding us became more and more… the silence was growing more and more as well. Because of this… the tension rising above and beyond my comfort zone. I could hear my own breathing magnify in my ears, my pulse thumping in my helm. I could hear the swallows and shallow breaths of my squad mates over my earpiece. Everyone was tense.

 _"Cardinal says 'no'. Your orders are to pacify the enemy resistance, as previously ordered."_ Master General Tommiayun spoke through my helmet. I had it set on speaker, so everyone, including our enemy, knew what or orders were.

I cleared my throat. "I'll give you one chance. Drop your weapons… or we'll shoot."

Supreme Justice brought her sword up. "I offer you the same in reply."

I sighed. "Oh well." I motioned to my squad, rising my own rifle up. I let loose a red beam of paralyzing plasma, hitting Supreme Justice right in her chest plate. A shield-carrier took the blast for her, protecting them both. My squad quickly went to work, firing down upon the soldiers. The soldiers returned fire, shooting their primitive weapons at us. Arrows bounced harmlessly off my folded Dwemer steeled armor, and harmlessly bounced off my undersuit.

Abrec, our heavy weapons expert, did what he was paid to do. He wore the big bulky armor for the very reason of any heavy weapons expert. He carried a minigun, one that would quickly pacify any resistance. He stepped up right in front of me and let loose his gun. I could barely see what was going on beneath us except for the red plasma raining down on top of them. The only problem with his heavy weapon… there is no stun setting. It's meant to kill. And he was mowing down everyone on top of us.

I watched and fired my rifle as soldier after soldier met their end to Abrec's minigun. For each one I managed to hit hard enough to put down, that increased the amount of lives spared for this. I couldn't believe we were actually doing this. We actually started.

"Mages of the Guild!" I heard someone scream. "Prepare to repel the invaders!" A woman screamed from a building not too far away. She was dressed in dark blue robes adorned with silver flames on the sleeves.

"We have a mage!" I screamed to Abrec. "Put her down!" He pulled his minigun away from the dying soldiers and focused his fire down on her. I watched as red plasma rained down upon her and her little gathering of mages.

That should have been the end of it. That's not what I saw though. I saw a massive bubble of what looked like magecraft surrounding her and her folk. "You think to end me with such pathetic magick?" She screamed to us. "I'm the Arch-Mage of Cyrodiil. And I will not be taken so lightly."

She waved her hand with her staff at us. I felt something foreign lift the ship up from under us, throwing us into the sky like it was child's play. The ship spun, throwing us around the cabin. I couldn't get my feet planted long enough to figure out what was going on. So… this was magic? Truly frightening if we did not have a way of defending against it. "Turn the nullifier on!" I screamed.

"Roger!" Rhorz screamed. She was the only one near the machine.

I opened my channel to the other teams. "Every team, activate your nullifiers! These mages are no joke!"

I got a series of 'roger' from everyone, followed shortly by a confirmation that the nullifiers were up and running. Our tumbling ship finally stopped tumbling… but only because we'd finally landed on the ground… outside the town, in some green patch of grass… something I've never seen in my lifetime. That little woman managed to pick us up and toss us all out of the town with hardly a grunt. She was… something else. Something scary.

"Weapons off stun." I said to my troops. "Mages are not to be trifled with. Put them down. Every single one of them."

That was probably the best order of the day. My squad was more than ready to put the mages down after being tossed around the cabin like they had been. I could already hear Rhorz puking on the cabin floor.

I looked over at Rzunalick. "You will carry the nullifier. It will make certain that any mage unfortunate enough to face us will be unable to fight back."

He nodded as he secured the humming device. I did not really know how the thing works. Honestly, I probably did, or could figure it out if I studied it. What I did not know was _how_ it worked. How it managed to scramble the mage's ability to cast magic. The sound was supposed to do something to their brain, make it impossible to focus on spellcasting or something like that. We just knew that it worked. Tested it on many prisoners before today. And any Dwemer born with that cursed magic. Not even worth becoming part of the Numidium project.

We marched off the ship, but it wasn't really marching back to the city that I was concerned with. It was the soft grass growing underneath my feet. It felt different from the hard stone of the Soul Cairn. I couldn't stop myself from looking down at it, admiring the beauty in it. The brightness of the landscape. My squad seemed just as lost as I did. We stayed lost like that while countless civilians marched across a long bridge leading out of the town.

I don't know how long we stood there, just looking at things we'd never seen before. Long wooden structures I could only guess were the trees that had been spoken of in books of old. All I knew was that by the time we had come to our senses, our Washimidium was already falling from the sky, landing right on the central tower, crushing it underneath its massive form. I could already hear the screams from the remaining citizens from within the city.

"We need to hurry." I said to my team as I raced for the town's entrance.

I could already hear the roars of something inhuman. Something ancient and powerful. I could feel it in my bones. There was a bright flash from underneath our Washimidium and up soared a massive burning dragon, flying right into the sky towards the sun.

"What is _that_?" Rhorz screamed.

I looked back at her. "You're the Intelligence agent! You tell me!"

She looked baffled, even under her helmet, but she nodded. "Right… bright flames, dragon form… Auri-El. The Aedra of Time. The Chief of the pantheon."

I nodded. "So, the strongest of the Aedra, right here in town." Go figure. "We have to get back to town right away." If not only to see what our Washimidium is actually capable of.

…

[Nisha]

 _Dear diary,_

 _As part of our studies as firedrakes, our class has decided to go on a short fieldtrip to the island of Khenarthi's Roost. It's one of our older islands, mostly inhabited by farmers and fishers. Some old temples dedicated to the Twin Moons, as well as an ancient martial art/dance temple up here. While we're spending the weekend here. Last night, we arrived and spent the night at Temple of the Two Moons Dance, one of the oldest of Khajiit martial arts. We spent the night mostly in silent as we watched the monks living there perform their dancing martial forms for us. I found it quite lovely, and inspiring. I always wanted to learn more than just alchemy, but brother never thought I needed to learn something so dangerous. I just don't think he understands me the way I understand him._

 _So, we spent the night eating rice and moon sugar, preparing our staves for the journey to one of the most respected sights on the island: The Temple of the Mourning Springs. It's an old ruin that used to be a temple for praying and talking to the spirits of loved ones. I wanted nothing more than to gaze upon the flowing spring waters, which supposedly allow one to communicate with loved ones in the Great Plains, our afterlife. I wanted to see if I could talk to Mom, or Dad. So, as you could guess, I didn't get much sleep at all. Immia was quick to fall asleep however._

 _Of course, last night, we had a bit of an experience. Our sky turned purple, like it did when we had the massive Silence that covered our world. Floating in the sky was some massive purple world. I was sleeping right next to Immia when it happened. The monks were quick to waking us up, making us all speculate on what this meant. Our teachers tried their best to calm us down, but you can't calm down a bunch of kids when something weird like this happens. We waited for hours waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did. When the sun rose, we went to the temple as planned. I never did get any sleep, and everyone was else was just as cranky as I am today._

 _I just can't wait to get this over with. I'm tired._

 _Nisha Ernard,_

 _Firedrake Trainee._

 _…_

I had to admit, the Temple of the Mourning Springs was quite peaceful. I don't think everyone could see the ghosts roaming the temple, chatting like it was a normal day. I wondered why I could see the ghosts, Immia as well. Our teacher seemed to notice the ghosts, but didn't mention it to anyone else. When he saw Immia and I looking at the ghosts walking around us, I swore he gave us a mournful look, as if he knew _exactly_ why we were able to see them. I wanted to ask him about it, but we were ushered to the Mourning Springs, given a lesson on how ancient Khajiit magick was taught to us by the Maormer, an ancient race of sea faring elves. They were distant cousins of another sea faring elf called the Lammer, or even Lamia if you were feeling poetic.

The first of our mages were known as waterdrakes. The drake was an order of mages from the Maormer, since they practiced Serpent magick. Drakes were masters of their magick craft. The Khajiits who were taught this magic were called waterdrakes. We were mostly taught the healing arts and used as healers for the Maormer during times of war against the Altmer. This was before our war with the Ayleid, in the oldest of our history tomes. It was here on this island that Khajiits began actually learning magicka. This was the birthplace of our drakes.

And this temple was where our drakes spent their training days. The link between the two worlds made it easier to get in touch with our latent magicka powers. Sacrifices were made here to speed the process along. It was a place of foul magick, and the wandering spirits helped prove this theory. During the Second Era, a dark Maormer necromancer used this very sight for some unholy ritual of some kind. The details were lost from us when the Dominion dissolved and left the island. With both the Maormer and the Dominion gone from the island, only Khajiit and wood elves remained. And now, it was a quiet island dedicated to farming and fishing. Nothing really much happened here anymore. The people seemed content to living out their lives on this peaceful island. I was almost jealous of it all. I bet the Oblivion Gates never even bothered coming here. I sure saw no signs of the battle that took place 6 years ago.

After our little lesson was done and over with, we were released for lunch, and afterwards, we were allowed to go walking around the temple as we pleased. I always ate with Immia, the girl I met in the ruins of Rimmen four months ago. She had just lost her parents, both of them, and needed a friend. I was that friend. She spent a few weeks just crying on my shoulder while Zhar tried his best to comfort her in the same fashion my brother tried to comfort me. Only I really knew what the girl needed, and that was her brother… and cookies. Mostly her brother though. I took care of the cookies. Zhar took care of the brother part.

But ever since then, I was with Immia. With my brother doing his thing as a battlemage, and with the Mages Guild being put back together, I didn't really feel like sitting around doing nothing while the mages rebuilt the university. I didn't really know many spells to do anything. If anything, the only thing I could have done was brew potion after potion to keep their spirits and bodies strong. But, I didn't really want that. I wanted to study magicka… prepare for this war. So, I moved to Torval with a scholarship from Arch-Mage Mommy (that's what I call her) to study at the Firedrake Academy. Immia followed me into the academy.

And now, we're the best of friends. Eating in the coldest, darkest part of the ruins. We were just sick of all the ghosts walking around and through us as we tried to eat our rice and fish. We ventured into the ruins to find a nice quiet spot to chat, and while there weren't any ghosts inside the ruins, I didn't feel like we were alone down here.

I don't think Immia noticed at all, because she was chatting nonstop about the temple we visited last night, and the unusual condition of the sky being purple again. "Do you think it's the Dominion?" She asked in-between bites. "You think they got bored of waiting for war so they just brought one back to us?"

I had to shake my head at the suggestion. "No. Our staves still work, and I can still do this." I extended my claw, which some amount of rainbow lightning crackled on my claw tips. It was some weird magicka our professor called 'personal magicka'. He explained it as my natural gift, not one I could ever teach to anyone. Any natural mage had one. The ones that pay for their magic, however, rarely ever found their own. I almost wanted to tell him that I did pay for this magic… it cost me my parents' lives to get it. Because I only obtained it after Vatu and I were struck by some Ayleid wonder stone.

Immia glanced at my lightning, eyeing it with wonder. "Why can't I do something pretty like that?" She whined as she looked down at her staff. "I don't have any magicka yet. I'm still stuck with this thing." She swiped the staff with her tail. She let out a loud sigh, her ears drooping down. "I don't know why I'm even here! It's obvious I'm not a firedrake, like you." She shoved me with her tail.

"You're also nine." I said to her. "I'm two years older than you. I got my magicka around the same age you are now. I'm sure you'll discover something about your magicka here. If nothing else, I can brew you a potion that will help you develop it."

She purred at the suggestion. "I just wish I could afford a spell tome."

I laughed, hissing at her. "Oh please. A simple flames spell? I'll just write a letter back home to my Arch-Mage Mommy. She'll teleport us all the tomes in the Mages Guild if I asked her."

Her eyes beamed at hearing that. "Think she'll be open to doing that?"

I nodded. "Of course she would. She's the best."

…

[Sosia Ernard]

I couldn't believe what I was seeing right overhead of me. A massive spider-like construction, clearly Dwemer in design. I remember seeing the Dwemer buildings in High Rock and Hammerfell. And that was one of the biggest things I've ever seen. It was almost the size of a whole district of the Imperial City. And it destroyed the White-Gold Tower as it fell into the town. It landed with such force that it shook the whole ground, turned the streets into a craterous deathtrap, buildings blasted down by a wave of dust and concrete. The entire Imperial City was leveled in mere seconds. It looked like a ghost town, just like it did two months ago.

I managed to raise a Shield just in time to protect everyone from the impact. It did a number on my magicka though. I was barely even able to stand up. My magicka was nearly drained, but that wasn't the worst of it. There were more and more of those armored Dwemer marching over to me. I was fighting four earlier and I got rid of them easily enough. Now… there were 20 more, and they were forming up around me. And my Shield was down. My only solace was that I wasn't alone, and that Akatosh flew in the skies above, fighting that wicked Dwemer machine.

"Stand together!" Sergius screamed, drawing his staff. Just as he said it, he was hit hard in the chest by blast after blast of those horrible hand magicka cannons. I watched him crumble to the floor, holes blasted through his enchanted robes. I forced myself to draw in a deep breath as I pushed myself back up. I threw a Shield up, just in time to catch several blasts heading right for me. I turned my attention to the first Dwemer in my way. As I reached out with my staff, he pointed his arm at me. There was this sudden loud pulsing sound in the back of my head, just loud enough to disrupt me. My magicka fizzled out, my Shield dropping almost instantly.

I don't know what was happening, but I felt very vulnerable. And very scared. My staff even felt lifeless in my hands. Why? I didn't have time to question it. All the Dwemer raised up their weapons, pointed them right at me. And the next thing I felt was a flurry of hot flashes all over my body. My last thought was of my children: Vatu, Nisha, and my four month old Lysara. I'll never get to see her grow up.

…

[Nisha]

I nodded to Immia. I couldn't wait to see her when I got back. "She's great. You'll love her. Maybe she'll adopt you too? We could be sisters!"

She purred at hearing that. "That would be great!"

Just then, both of our crystal balls started to glow. I bet it was our teacher, wondering where we had gone off to. I picked up the ball, prepared to give him a speech about what 'free studying' meant to me and Immia when it was my friend Prashin. "Nisha? You should know something."

"What?"

"Immia…" Zhar said over his. "The Imperial City has fallen."

"What?" Immia screamed, throwing her lunch off her lap.

I looked down at Prashin. "Is this true?"

Prashin nodded. "We've been watching it on the world map. The Dwemer are here… and they've taken over the Imperial City. Everyone there… they're dead."

Everyone? But… "Is the Arch-Mage…"

He shook his head. "I watched the whole thing. She was one of the last ones. The other mages all surrendered after she fell… but…" His image flicked away and I was suddenly watching a scene of the Imperial city wreckage. I could see mages, people I called friends just months ago, kneeling on the ground with their hands over their heads. I could see Sosia's bleeding corpse in the middle of them, her lifeless eyes staring off at the pavement.

I thought the Dwemer were going to take the prisoners away but then I saw red beams of fire magicka rain down on top of them. All the mages screamed, some tried to stand up and run… but every single one of them was shot down until they were just as broken and bleeding as my arch-mage mommy. And… she was gone. She was the only thing I had left other than Vatu and Lysara… and she was gone. Just like that. I never even got to say good-bye. And that… that made it fresh in my mind. Just like when Mom and Dad died. All over again. It was the same exact feeling all over again. Only, it was worse this time. I've lost four parents now… and I only knew her for a year at most.

"Nisha?" Prashin called over the ball. "Are you ok?"

I dropped the ball, curling up into one of my own. I couldn't think of anything else but everyone I lost. I couldn't deal with this anymore. My brother… I needed my brother. He'd fix me… he did it last time. Why not this time too?"

…

[Vatu]

"Vatu, this is Crassi. Report back to camp immediately. We have a mission."

I looked down at my crystal ball. Why did this message have to come now of all times? We _just_ got to the Temple of the Mourning Springs. I bet Nisha was somewhere in this temple. The rest of her class was out here, all enjoying their lunches. What on nirn could be so important that I couldn't spend one day with my girlfriend and my baby sister? I better go find out.

I looked over at Junna. "Feel like tagging along?"

Junna's brother, Daan, grabbed her shoulder. "Junna, father's been worried about you lately. I promised him you'd come spend some time with him this weekend."

Junna sighed at the suggestion, looking back at me. "Sure, I'll come." She looked back at her brother. "And you tell Dad… I'll see him _tomorrow_."

Daan nodded. "Ok then. I'll see you tomorrow." He looked at Trinjje, kissing her. "Feel like visiting the Temple of Two Moons Dance while we're here?"

"And beat the snot out of their monks?" She hinted to him.

He nodded. "Of course."

She purred, bouncing on her feet. "Yes! Let's go teach them real martial arts!"

I looked back at the temple. Oh well… some other time I'll visit my sister. It's not like it's the end of the world or something like that.

* * *

 **Cearbhail** :

 _Sosia Ernard, beloved character. I wanted to keep her alive, hell I never even planned on her dying in this story. but... it seemed just so right! And it showed just how powerless the mages really are against the Tonal Nullifiers. And to kill such a driven character, adopted mother and leader of the Mages guild... it shows that even my strongest/favorite characters might end up dying in this story. Once again, I did not plan on her death until I wrote in into the city. I figured, this is a place where she would happen to be. And so... she was. And there is no way she would have run without saving her friends first. And that was her fatal flaw, one that ended her place in this story, unfortunately.  
_

 _Oh well, I wonder who's next?_


	6. The Sun burns bright tonight

**Cearbhail** :

 _Ok, so... things happen. A lot of things. And people die... and people live... and then other things die... and then... well... you get it. So... um... I...  
_

 _Nevermind._

 _=^^= Enjoy..._

* * *

[Akatosh]

After all these years, to walk upon the soil of Mundus again. To freely allow myself to become involved in the affairs of mortals, only six years after the Oblivion Crisis. For me to materialize here, now… you had better bet we were desperately needed in this hour. We Aedra decided years upon years ago that we would give blessing of our magicka to those who would ask of it. To be guided by our experience, our wisdom, if needed. Sometimes we choose champions to take upon our mantle of responsibility for important world-changing events. We've done it so often, for so many, that you would think we were frivolous with our divine potential. And yet, always, we've carefully read the Scrolls, scanned the future, the consequences of our actions, our blessings. And then we judge, we push, we guide. We do all we can to see the desired effect upon our world… our Mundus, but without ever bringing ourselves into the thick of the battle.

And yet, here I stand on Mundus soil seeing the very city created by the forgotten elves of an age long passed. To see the now named Imperial City in ruins. To see it stand proudly for hundreds of years… destroyed in a matter of seconds. When Mehrunes Dagon decided upon himself to invade Mundus, the Nine of us decided that we could not allow such evil to plague our world. Mundus was OUR plane, not the Daedra's. We banded together to bring a ragtag group of mortals together; people we have selectively pushed into each other's hands. Together they were going to fix all the wrong in our world. The invasion of the Daedra; we had Adam Tullius. The man was a blessed warrior, quick on his feet, fast with his mouth, and even faster with his hands when given bow and sword.

Arkay and Julianos were worried about the King of Worms making his way back to the world, making it his mission to destroy the Mages Guild using a cult of necromancers; the very thing Arkay cannot stand in this world. Mortals deciding upon themselves to steal the souls of other mortals. Arkay's faithful stolen from him and given to the 'Ideal' Masters who live upon the Soul Cairn. Julianos worried his mages would not be able to weather the invasion of the Daedra on top of the rising cult of necromancers. With both Arkay and Julianos worried about the Mages Guild and the necromancers, they decided to push a small teenager Breton, Sosia Merian, on her path to becoming one of the strongest mages of her time. She was the heart of the group, Adam the action taker.

Those two were our main defenders of Cyrodiil for this generation, however we felt it necessary to further along our plan to maintain a healthy system for further attacks. Small things threatened to destroy the Fighters Guild, the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood. Each organization, even if morally vacant at times, was needed for future events to unfold as we wished. We've known for a while about the invasion of Stendarr's Crusader angels; and the rise it would give to the Aldmeri Dominion. We needed more champions to take that even further. We needed a strong Fighters Guild, a sly Thieves Guild, and a cutthroat Brotherhood, with a morally acceptable leader for each one. Selectively, all the Divines pitched in to select our candidates for each branch.

Roland Lylvieve, an honorable shipmate under his father's pirate vessel. Raised on swords and bows, much like Adam. Lived like a pirate, raiding on villages much too weak to protect themselves. A man that was forced to survive a Legion Frigate assault on his father's ship. Everyone killed, and him washing ashore in Anvil, water-logged but alive. A man that would survive countless other entanglements, living in the Fighters Guild, later becoming the Master. A man that would never really die in battle, luckiest man alive. A man that would bring a new era to the Fighters Guild charter when it was threatened by the Blackwood Company.

Zirien Ules. An orphan from Morrowind, moved to the Imperial City to find a way to make a living. Accidentally getting roped into a robbery with Methredhel, a local Bosmer thief, Zirien ended up entering the Thieves Guild as Methredhel's partner and lookout. While the Daedra are more associated with the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, we've carefully guided Zirien to becoming the Gray Fox. He would be needed later on when the Dominion attempted to sack the Imperial City, and later… for today.

Zergon Creishan. A hatched Shadowscale, born and raised in the academies of Black Marsh to become a deadly assassin. A Shadowscale loyal to his country and his family. A quiet lad with a quick mind and silent temper. A sound leader if ever there was one to lead a darker destiny. Stendarr minded his temper as best he could while Dibella sought to teach him creative ways to complete his missions without exposing himself or his sense of morality. He carefully guided him to stay truthful to himself, to not allow himself to become corrupted as so many did before him. His Dark Brotherhood would need to revive itself and become strong for the future battles. He would become a great advisor to the Queen of Shadows… another hand that needed pushed.

Rubble kicked under my foot as I trudged around the wreckage of the Imperial City. Time stood still for me as I walked the streets. Frozen Dwemer knights stood in a circle, their malicious weapons of mechanical interference aimed at a single gaggle of corpses… a handful of mages from the college. Legionnaires littered the floor. Mortals. The always fight, war over something. And it's usually us. We did not set out to create the world for them to destroy it with their petty violence. It would be our undoing… and yet, you could say we've let it come to this. We pushed the Dwemer much in the same way we pushed Sosia Merian, who now lied motionless in front of my feet.

We wanted so much from the Dwemer. Their technical mastery, the beauty Dibella bestowed upon them, and yet… they martyred themselves, calling themselves victims of our grace. They wanted independence, never fully understanding how blessings worked. They still operated without our true interference. We never set out to rule them, never wished them to follow in our footsteps. But the Dwemer wanted more. More than just riches and technological wonders that could sunder the world we created. They wanted what we were… our potential to rule the world, to have magick far beyond what we could stop. They wanted their technology to far surpass what we Aedra could defend against. We never understood why, but we never attempted to halt them. The Daedra did though.

The Daedra tricked the Dwemer into doing a ceremony that would make them gods. And the Dwemer were so wrought with obtaining power that they actually did it. Together with the Chimer, the Dwemer sought to obtain immortality. It worked… for three Chimer. The Dwemer were tricked into throwing their entire race into the Soul Cairn, as offerings to give the three Chimer god-like powers by the very 'Ideal' Masters that sought Mundus as their own. Everyone seems to want Mundus for their own, even though the Aedra were the ones that created it.

The Dwemer were taken away from Mundus, and ever since, have been untouchable by our hands. The Soul Cairn… it is a place we Aedra cannot enter. It is a place between the Void and Aetherius. We call it the Purgatory. We could not free them even if we wished it. And the Dwemer have never forgotten that they wished to surpass the gods. Except now… they wish to extinguish us. They fear us, wish us destroyed. We Aedra are the gods of all elves, regardless of why they serve. Dibella and Julianos still wish wealth of knowledge and beauty upon them, and I wish for time to be correct. The Scrolls read of this event, and we've planned for it. I just hope we've done all we can.

I stood motionlessly in the middle of a pile of corpses, the Dwemer all but ignored as I studied the destroyed town. To think that it would come to this, and that we knew it would, but at the same time did not. Time is ever flowing, and ever changing. There were hints that this could come to pass, and I wrote of it myself. Julianos was my scribe, chronicling everything I said, every detail recorded for mages and priests of the world to judge and process for themselves. Hundreds of scrolls, each one recording all of history in several variations, several prophecies. Millions of outcomes and small interchangeable instances. And we've watched as millions of versions of Mundus went along its path. Millions versions of ourselves all reacting similarly as any other. And yet… here I stand. One of a million Akatosh, chosen to be the final one. All universes converge in ours, all histories reflect ours. All shudder this day; all weep as well. And here I stand.

"Brother." My lesser, Akatria, appeared beside me. He looked like a snow elf, silver with moons as his irises. He was a Lammer god, one of their own creation. He was my 'twin' brother. As was Alkosh, the Khajiit version of me. He existed because a Daedra Lord, Azura, used her own magick to make him. Akatria was likewise created by Sheogorath when he adopted the identity Sheogolinda for the Lammer. Each race had their own differences, but all of us were the same in some respect. The dragon soaring in the sky was my avatar that Martin became. He was fighting with what remained of his soulic energy. He would soon burn out. And this fight would be left up to me.

"Copy." I replied to Akatria. "You've decided to join me?"

He nodded. "We are one in the same, only…"

"You're my reflection in the night sky." I replied back. And that is the truth of Akatria. He is but a reflection of the light I give. I am the master of time… and my little brother is the master of tide. His entire being is to manipulate the ocean to giving currents and tides to the Lammer so that waves will crash upon the shores of the world, giving them much needed air to breathe. He is but a reflection of my true power. He might be a silver dragon, but he is nothing compared to a full Aedra.

"Akatosh." I heard behind me. Two more Aedra walked upon the ground: Arkay and Julianos. Everyone was blind to us as we walked the surface. Time was standing still, for anyone wishing to know. I was using my power to freeze time while we met and discussed our plans. We literally had all the time in the world to stand here and hatch our plan.

"Where are the others?" I asked as I turned to see them.

Julianos pushed up his glasses as he referred to his scroll. "Dibella is attending an orgy in her name… Mara is grieving in the center of the town for those young couples she adored. Stendarr is gathering with his Crusaders. He plans on making a march to us in his own time. You know… once we've…"

I nodded. "And Talos? Kynareth? Zenithar?"

Julianos went back to his scroll. "Talos denies this timeline. He declared that he is needed on the fourth Tamriel. Kynareth is gathering her Hist. She is planning to stand with Valenwood. She'll march with Stendarr later, in the second coming. Zenithar doesn't see the long term benefit of coming here. He will not fight the Dwemer. Neither will Mara or Dibella."

I nodded to Julianos. "And you?"

The toga-wearing scholar glanced up at the massive spider structure standing in the center of the town. "Here we have the crowning jewel of Dwemer engineering. They've advanced so quickly, far beyond what I thought them capable of. They've exceeded my designs for the Magicka Stabilization Centers, mastering the art of the mind… something Dibella and I can both appreciate. However, Dibella and I also agree that these designs are cruel, founded on unethical development… and these Dwemer are even more intolerant than they were when they sought to outwit us. Intelligence without tolerance is still blind to me, as well as Stendarr. These Dwemer need punished for the crimes of this afternoon. They slaughtered an entire town filled with guards and mages. The guards I can understand… they were ordered by those above them, and the guards posed a legitimate threat. The mages… when they lost their magicka… they posed no threat. The Dwemer could have easily subdued them. However… they were killed in vengeance for what they were. These Dwemer deserve no quarter from me, and they shall have none."

I nodded. It was glad to see that Julianos was still on my side of this. We needed to do something. And this was it. I looked over at Arkay. "Are you sure about this?"

He nodded. "We chose her. We chose all of them. They're all we need to make this right." The robed priest walked over to Sosia, bending down. He touched her on the forehead. I watched as the lights returned to her eyes. Still frozen in time, I knew she would be alright. It was time for us to do this. Arkay walked over to each fallen knight, each fallen mage. He touched them all upon the head, returning their lives. "May you walk the Valley of Peace another day." He whispered to them. With a clap of his hands, each person magically teleported away from the town.

"May I attend?" A new voice called from behind. Our newest Aedra… the Goddess of Rebirth, and assistant to Arkay, Nrillia walked up to us. She was once one of the strongest villains this realm had ever seen, but she earned her own name, and a chance for redemption at Arkay's request.

Arkay turned to look at her, grabbing her shoulder. "You will be needed later." Before she could even object, she was already gone; teleported away to where the rest of the Imperial City was teleported to.

I looked over at Julianos and then back to Arkay. "Should we analyze our enemy before we commit to our attack?"

Julianos was right on it. He walked up to one of the armored Dwemer, observing their armor and weapons. "Looks like a heavily condensed soulic armor; processed by reducing magma and mortal structure, as well as magicka, into a metallic substance that is cooled and molded, and then repeated with sheets upon sheets of similar armor. The under armor seems to be designed from more of the same substance but also a thin threading from soul worms. Interesting. Their… whatever they call these handheld crossbows seem to run off of soul gems, that actually have a setting to absorb souls slain in battle. Great design, might give this to some desperate battlemages in the future. Too bad Magnus is no longer alive. He would love to take part in this observation."

I walked up to the Dwemer he was observing. "With one flick of my finger, I could break every bone in his body." He would deserve it too. All of these Dwemer killed surrendered mages for no reason other than because they could. I know they had some sort of Silencing technology, however, it has no effect on the Divine. Even if the whole town was Shielded, there was no obvious limit to my magicka. I am magicka. "Will we?"

Arkay nodded. "If Stendarr were here, he'd advise that we do. These Dwemer had prisoners; the Dwemer executed them. They deserve the same." He walked over to us, laying his hand on the Dwemer. I felt his life force suddenly whisk away. With a wave of his hand, every Dwemer's energy whisked away. And that's when I let time resume. Simultaneously, every Dwemer fell to the ground, not a whisper uttered.

I heard a mechanical groan, like a massive screech. I looked up, seeing that massive spider-looking god killer with the giant blue glowing orb in the middle of its singular round head looking right at us. "I believe it's time." I said to Arkay and Julianos. Mara and Dibella walked over to us from around the corner, finally ready to join us for our final fight. Zenithar followed shortly behind. Each of them had a grim look on their faces as they marched up.

Arkay almost scoffed. "Do you really want to join us now? You know what will happen."

Mara smiled. "I know in the end…" She shrugged. "Eh. I trust that my children will live on."

I nodded to Mara. "I have seen and written the Scrolls. This has to come. The age of gods…" I nodded to the collecting Aedra. Kynareth and Stendarr were already flying over to meet us. An entire wave of our Aedric forces following behind them. The army we amassed, if only for this one battle. The fight against this one creature. To see if we could damage it enough that the mortals might have a chance. "will have to come to an end."

"You think the mortals will get along fine without us?" Zenithar asked as he walked over to me.

I nodded. "We have chosen our champions. The Daedra have chosen theirs. While they are vile and plotting their own wars, their own vengeances, and are using their champions for their own gain, I have faith that these four worlds will ban together. And… I must have faith in the mortals. They've had faith in us this whole time. Limited as we were before today. And today… and tomorrow… and the following month, we will learn if we planned accordingly for this. Everyone we've pushed, everything we've set up. Let's see if we made the right calls."

Dibella smirked as she looked up at the spider. "Marvelous! Such beautiful craftsmanship. The sweat, blood, tears that went into making such a behemoth! I bet men upon men upon men folded themselves, tight muscled and dripping with sweat and oil cranking their wrenches as they tightened the bolts onto flat strips of metal. Mmm…" She bit her lower lip. "It makes me… it makes me… INSPIRED!" She pulled out a quill and a notepad. "I must capture this image! Place it in my priestesses' minds! Let it be their fuel for tonight! The after party's inner circle party!" That's my daughter everyone. Let it be known… that's my daughter. I am not amused.

"Now, the true fight begins." I said as I shed my Aldmer appearance, growing into the true dragon king I was. My body burned bright as I drew upon my sun, my very soul for my fight. My fellow seven (plus Akatria) Aedra all shed their mortal forms, transforming into their godly forms. For everyone else… it didn't really change much. Arkay turned into a black shadow with a scythe. Julianos didn't change one bit, he just allowed the flow of magicka within him to surge out like a tornado of pure magicka. Kynareth turned into the wind. Me? I just wished I had my bow. My favorite bow. My oh-so useful bow… and I'm a dragon. I totally need that bow.

Akatria grew into a silver dragon almost as majestic as I was. The two of us took off immediately to the sky. I summoned as much of my solar fire as possible as I heated myself up. There is no way I cannot do this. I burn so brightly that I could flow right through the machine, never stopping. The steel is not that strong. As I turned my attention to the towering machine roughly the same size as me, I transformed into pure magicka, ready to flow right through him. Akatria was already crashing into the very machine, Kynareth and Arkay doing what they could to topple the god killer.

I summoned more and more energy from within myself as I built myself up. I had to time this just right. If I messed this up, I would turn to stone, much like how Martin did. I _was_ going to turn to stone, but it would be better if I turned to stone while melting inside the machine. It can't come back from that. As soon as I was ready to launch myself down, I heard an annoying whine coming from the machine.

…

[Guilgameavh]

What a terrific sight. The Aedra were just lining up. So many of them. I'm glad I came down on top of Washimidium with my two master generals. And now, I got to see what this Numidium was truly capable of. "Ready the Absorption Cannon." I talked to the Numidium. Sure, it was free-thinking, but it never hurts to tell someone what to do. It might be confused with who to start with. There were so many to choose from. I was eyeing the big one in the sky. "Aim cannon at the massive burning chicken."

"Sir, I'm sure that's a dragon." Promishlandin said with a sigh.

"I don't care if it's a dragon, a chicken, or a peacock, we're shooting it first." I replied. That was the sun god… the grand chief of the Aedra. If we brought him down first… they would all soon follow. Washimidium brought his cannon eye up at the glowing chicken/dragon. We primed his systems before we landed. And it was paying off. The dragon never even got the chance to move. The blue cannon ripped right through him, blasting him to thousands of particle pieces. Just like that… the sun god was gone. The Lorkhan in the center of the Numidium began to whir, and I knew it was time for us to actually kill a god. The dispersed energy that was once a god began to flow towards us, gathering into a stream before flowing right through the collection ports. The Aedra were trying what they could to get near us, but without the sun god to give the brunt of the attack, the gods were nothing but distractions.

The lesser Aedra, the flying soldiers, spewed magicka at us, but with our tonal Silencers, their magicka was far too weak to penetrate our barriers. For added security, we added those… what did the Dominion call them? Malachite natural shielding crystals? Yeah, that's it. Not strong enough to push away full grown gods, but for the lesser ones… their magicka shriveled right up before ever touching us. I actually laughed as the gods tried their best to topple the machine. The only one doing any damage at all was the other dragon. He flew by, shooting silver at us. We were happily inside the protected shelling of the Numidium, watching everything unfold from the outside surveillance cameras. Every bash the dragon did against us, I felt the whole Numidium screech from the impact.

"Take out the other dragon." I said. The Numidium responded. The one Lorkhan was full, but we packed twelve just in case. We were ready for another shot. The Absorption Cannon fired again, striking the silver dragon. He exploded into dust, just like the last one. It was just about then when the Aedra started to disperse. It was also at that time that the remaining fleet dropped down from the sky in their airships. Now, we might not have Lorkhans and collection devices on those ships, but they were outfitted with regular magicka cannons. We've had a lot of time on our hands to prepare for this day. We were not about to let it go to waste. Not while the Divines are right here in front of us.

Charged magicka cannons flashed from the tops of the airships, cutting down the lesser Aedra like they were nothing. Several airships took a brutal frontal assault from a massive wave of orange-robed Aedra, immediately giving into the massive waves. The ones that were overrun… they exploded. Set themselves up and exploded, killing all the accursed angels up with them. That wiped out a few legions of angels, leaving the bigger ones for us.

"Washimidium, give me a firing solution on… what's his name?" The god of life and death. I wouldn't want someone with his powers getting away. "Arkay? The reaper-ish one." Washimidium took aim at the flying specter. "Him next."

And one blast later, he was nothing but falling mystic ash. Our collection system was going crazy pulling in the mystic ash, storing it away, sealing the very essence of these gods. Killing them essentially for good. Once we're done, we're blasting these Lorkhans to the Soul Cairn as our offering for our release. It's what the Ideal Masters want.

"You'd think these gods would be tougher." Promishlandin sighed. "We just took out three of them without sustaining a serious blow."

I nodded. "Taking out the sun god, the god of time was essential. The other gods all do small blessings and whatnot. Besides, this just proves that the 'power' of the gods is utterly useless when compared to the mechanical majesty of our intelligence." I scanned for the next god to go. There was one with a swirling cloud of what appeared to be their godly energy surrounding him. "Take out the mage one next. I think it's… Juli something. Take it out."

Washimidium started to turn to face the magick wonder but there was a slight pause, causing the entire cabin to shake. I was almost thrown off my feet. "What was that?"

One of the engineers watching the virtual display of Washimidium's internal system turned to face me. "There seems to be some amount of stress in the ligaments." The engineer began pulling up a new screen. "Activating drone." The screen popped up, and I watched as the engineer began piloting the drone out, finally stopping far enough outside that we could see all of Washimidium. The entire ground around Washimidium was covered in mud and thick tree vines sprouting from the ground. Standing at the base of the newly erect swamp slowly swallowing us was one lone wood elf wearing a bright green dress with long wavy brown hair.

"And that must be the nature god." I muttered. "We should take her out next."

"Sir… the vines are wrapping around everywhere. If we don't take care of it soon, we'll lose the legs of Washimidium."

I scoffed, looking at the engineer. "Are you suggesting this… tree hugger's vines can crush Dwemer steel?"

He shook his head. "No, but it found a way in… it can find a way out and in and out… until we're too wrapped up to move. Washimidium will _become_ a living tree."

I sighed. "Washimidium, take out the nature god."

Washimidium responded abruptly, trying to kick its legs out, not really succeeding though. Washimidium responded by looking down, warming up its absorption cannon. Just as it was getting ready to do so, we were slammed hard by a flash of hail and lightning. A massive ball of something icy slammed into the cannon's head, knocking it just off enough that the absorption beam ripped right beside the nature god, almost killing her but not really succeeding. I could see the magic god waving his hands around as he continued to summon more things to fight us with. Rocks pulled up from the ground, exploding into multi-colored fireballs that rushed into us. I could feel Washimidium take each hit. Somewhere inside us, I could hear something snap, a steam pipe shattering somewhere in the cabin.

"Status report!" I screamed to the engineers.

"Nothing major, slight tear in left leg's pneumatic actuator. We're not getting enough compressed steam into the front left leg. Oh no… with that gone…"

I hear Washimidium groan, his front left leg crumbling under us. Everyone in the cabin was suddenly thrown off their feet crashing into the wall as Washimidium fell.

"Washimidium!" I screamed. "Take out something!" The absorption beam ripped off, slamming into whatever it could. Buildings evaporated into dust, any remaining Aedra caught in the beam sundered. None of the major Aedra were caught in the crossfire though.

I looked over at Tommiayun and Promishlandin. "We need to do something."

"Sir…" An engineer said. "We seem to be floating." I looked at the screen, watching as blue whatever it was covered our machine. The magic god was actually using his divineness to lift us up. With a wave of his hands we were suddenly thrown off to the right. We again were slammed into the wall as the machine pulled us with it. When Washimidium crashed down, we flew from one wall to the next. One of my engineers hit something too hard, a loose pipe that had somehow broken free. I heard him scream in horror as he was impaled. I was too busy trying to catch my breath to even begin screaming orders to Wash.

It's a good thing Washimidium is self-thinking. He deduced that the magic god was the one tossing him around. And he landed in just a way that let him take aim. The absorption beam ripped out, the magic god only having enough time to throw up a barrier spell to defend himself. It didn't matter. The beam ripped right through it, evaporating the magic god before he could do anything. He didn't explode into mystic dust though. He just… vanished. Which meant he fled. He wasn't dead.

"Sir…" One of the injured engineers called. "The nature god is at it again…" He reported. "She's wrapping us up in vines. She's securing us to the ground." I looked at the screen. She had us completely wrapped over. They did it. They brought us down.

"We have no choice." I said. "The last resort." It was a disruption bomb. Should work, but it was all theoretical. It took Washimidium offline, but it would disrupt all the gods' spiritual forms. This was our last chance to do this. We would know for certain if we ever encountered a god to practice it on. To be honest, the absorption cannon was also theoretical, but it worked just as planned.

"Sir, we don't know if our backup systems will activate in time to absorb the other gods' essences." The same engineer reported. "We've never had a decent field test of Washimidium's last resort."

"We have no choice. The gods are slowly finding ways to break into our machine." I could see the nature god's vines finding new spots to bore into. If this kept up, Washimidium was going to be officially offline anyway. And we will have lost this round to the Aedra. A couple thousand years of bodies and souls went into making Washimidium, making him as grand as he was… and to lose him to this? Not acceptable. "Washimidium, Override Emergency Action: Last Resort."

Washimidium groaned in acceptance. All the lights and screens suddenly went off, and we were standing in the dark. There was no sound, no warning… nothing. We were blindly standing around waiting for something to happen. There was a slight flicker as one of the filled Lorkhans powered up, activating Washimidium. The screens popped back up, and so did the holographic display of Washimidium's core.

The engineer went back to work. "Good news, sir. We're showing all but one Lorkhan filling up. One's still inactive."

"Which one?" One of the Aedra escaped us? You'd better bet I want to know which one.

"The one built for Talos. The lesser Lorkhans for the lesser Aedra are filling up nicely though. That big silver dragon thing took up one on his own." He reported.

I glanced out the video screens. The gods we were fighting were completely gone. The entire town was filled with mystic dust. So… the last resort worked. We lost Washimidium for a few seconds, and after he's done collecting the other gods, he'll shut back down again until we can repair his internal systems. It's probably for the best. We wouldn't be able to get him to move with three broken legs. That nature god did a real number on Wash before we vaporized her.

"Status report?" I asked the engineer.

"Sir, we're looking at two weeks of repairs at least… before we can get Washimidium moving again. Absorption cannon is damaged. That last smack we did loosened it. The last beam we performed knocked it completely off its base. It managed to tear up some of the interior. We're lucky the cannon didn't explode on us." The engineer said.

I nodded. "Well, we built this thing to kill gods. And what did it do? It killed the gods." I nodded to everyone. "I call that a win in my book."

Tommiayun smirked. He glared at me with his blindfolded eyes. "We still have the rest of the world to contend with." He glanced away from me. "I can feel the world already planning its next move. We should begin ours."

We had the entire city surrounded by our airship fleet. "We're fine. We're the strongest army in the whole universe. Nothing can possibly ruin this for us now. We brought down their gods… the rest of the world will soon learn that they cannot stand against us. If their gods fell, they will too. They'll realize that and let us go."

Tommiayun silently turned on the ball of his foot. As he headed for the door leading outside, Promishlandin turned to face me. "You're overconfident. Never stopped to consider why all the dead soldiers are gone? And why our commandos are all but dead?" He grimaced. "The gods did something before they acted against us. I bet they never planned on leaving this battle. Call it paranoia… but we took them down too easily. Even our blind archer could see that."

Tommiayun glanced over his shoulder. "Indeed. Anyone could see that the gods were not fighting at their fullest. Several of them weren't even fighting at all, just standing around. They didn't even need to come here. They never even needed to appear in physical form. Face it… this entire battle was a farce. The gods played us… they wanted captured… but why?"

The gods wanted captured? That was by far the dumbest thing I ever heard of. These were military leaders? Such arrogance to think they know what the gods wanted or could even possibly do. For all we know, this lackluster group of gods were just as worthless as they appeared. "I think you presume too much."

"And we know you think the gods fools." Promishlandin replied. "Our enemy has had eons to prepare for us. So… why show up at all? Why even bother showing up all at once? Why not gather the entire world at our doorstep?" He shook his head. "I have a bad feeling about this… and mark our words."

"This is far from over." Tommiayun responded. "We need to set up an operations base."

"We have what we came for. We should return home." I suggested. We have the gods caught. We no longer needed to remain here.

"We are short one Aedra. Talos." Tommiayun reminded me.

Oh… yeah, I guess I forgot about him. He was still out there. He wasn't an elven god, but he was considered one of the Divine Nine or something like that.

"And he's the god of war." Promishlandin responded. "If there was ever a deadly Aedra to be reckoned with, it would be him. Even as a man, he managed to take an entire country with a small ragtag group of marauders. Imagine what he will be capable of in his godliness?"

That was a good point. "How long until Washimidium is ready?" I asked the engineers.

They all seemed too busy talking to each other to come up with a straight answer. As they researched every little thing on the holographic display, they continued to find more and more stuff that needed fixing. "Three weeks, it's looking like.." One said. "Wait… is that the… four weeks… maybe? Ugh… not that too!"

I looked over to Tommiayun and Promishlandin. "Regardless, we can't move our prize until Washimidium is able to move again. Set up your operations base. We'll defend this town until Washimidium is fixed and ready to depart."

The two Generals glared at me. "Do not presume us your slaves." Promishlandin grunted as he headed for the door.

Tommiayun nodded to me, his blindfolded eyes ever frightful as he headed for the door too. "Do not worry; we'll protect this town from any intruders. Speaking of which… I feel like we're about to be ambushed. I'll speak to the remaining commandos about setting up a defensive barricade, and get the airships to form a defensive perimeter around town. Nothing shall get past us." He slipped off his powerful Dwemer bow. He was one of the best archers in the Dwemer Legion. It's why he was promoted to Master General. He was also a strong strategist in his own right. He was born blind but quickly learned how to use his mind to overcome his only weakness. Now he can snipe better and faster than anyone I've met so far. I had no doubt that if he suspected an incoming attack that he was probably right. But who would be so foolish as to attack us?

* * *

 **Cearbhail** :

 _Exactly how many people did I just piss off by basically killing the gods off? I swear to you, it's all part of the plan. You'll thank me later, maybe. And I know that we're spending a lot of time in Tamriel 1, but I'd like to point out that the other Legions haven't even touched the other Tamriels yet. Might be a good time for some regular people having fun chapters in the other books. Perhaps. We won't be getting to Bloodstain's for a while. I'd rather wait until I'm done with After Shoutmen to reach it... but it might not happen that way. You might learn what happens to Bloodstain's universe in this story before I ever finish it. I'm sure I'm not surprising anyone with what will happen either. I already have it recorded so I don't mess it up.  
_

 _Anyway, see you next chapter with Vatu! And everyone else that will die. Maybe. Oh... and I managed to save Sosia! Yay!_


	7. Operation: Shadow

**Cearbhail:**

 _So... we're going on a lighter tone for a few chapters. Just catching up on the other characters. And then, we'll get back to the dying and stuff.  
_

 _Oh... and enjoy =^^=_

* * *

[Huniir]

"Ok, just… breathe." I spoke into my headset, keeping my eyes locked on my target.

A Shadowwraith, Oleeme Puparammanx, waited patiently for my advice. He was under my guidance today. With everything that's been going on today, I have to make sure this goes over well. I can't let this operation fall apart. We've lost too many lives to this operation for it to fail.

 _"Just breathe?"_ He asked into his headset, shaking his head. _"Easy for you to say. I don't know what to do!"_ He was pacing back and forth, shaking his head as he tried to come to terms with what he was facing today. I had to admit… I didn't envy him. But then again… I kind of do.

"What's going on?" A soft voice called from behind me. I turned around, seeing my twin sister, Rascia, joining me. She bent down, looking at my seer stone screen. "Ah… I see. Mission of the century right here." She patted me on the shoulder. "Good luck, brother."

I glanced over to her. "Thanks. It's not going well. Shadow's having some trouble. His target is elusive, and she won't give him any room to move forward."

Rascia patted me on the shoulder again. "Here… let me talk to him." She tapped on her own headset, setting into our frequency. "Still Frequency Frost, right?"

"Yeah… sounds appropriate given the circumstances." I replied.

Rascia tuned into our frequency. "Ok, Shadow, Segunda here."

 _"Segunda? What happened to Masser?"_ He almost whined.

"Hey!" Rascia screamed into her headset. "I'm probably the only person who's going to get you out of this in one piece, soldier." She placed her hand on my shoulder. "Now… your mission. Update me on it. Let me see what we're working with."

 _"Well… I picked Nakuma up for our date. Under Masser's direction, I picked up some lavender flowers. She loves them. It's hard because... she's a husk now. And… she doesn't really feel things anymore. I'm trying my best to restore it."_

Rascia nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I don't need the exposition. WE all know what you're doing. Just give me the details. Where's Husk now?"

 _"Bathroom. But… it's been six minutes!"_

Rascia nodded. "Hmm… could be nerves. Could be you are annoying her."

 _"Gee… thanks for that. Now I'm even more nervous. Put Masser back on."_

I shrugged, saying, "Could be diarrhea."

Rascia looked at me, squinting. "You _never_ imply that."

 _"Yeah, man. That's kind of harsh."_ Oleeme countered back. _"But still, it's a better suggestion to hear than Nakuma, the husk, having a case of the nerves."_

Rascia looked down at me, giving me the eyebrow. I raised my hands in defeat. I know what that look means. She's ready to do what she does best. "By all means…"

She pushed me out of my seat, taking her spot on it. "Ok, you little shit… first off: I don't care about your little shit feelings. I'm here to assist you in completing your mission. Second off: I'm not some stupid boy; I'm a woman. So… I know what's going on in her head. Third off: you talk to me like that again, and we're aborting this mission. Got it?"

There was a pause. I watched as Oleeme twitched in response to Rascia's scolding. _"Why did I even ask for your assistance?"_

I tapped into my headset. "Don't forget, Shadow… we're all behind you."

Rascia looked at me, nodding. "You should go update Queen on the details."

I nodded. I walked over to the world map. Looking around Masser Moon Base, I sometimes wondered if we'd ever not need this place. The moon base was outfitted with a working magicka cannon, one that could target any location on Tamriel with a perfect grid system for targeting. We've tested it out on several deserted islands, obliterating any choice ruin we found. It took a few calibrations to get the magicka cannon fully operational, and a few more to get the targeting system near flawless, but it was worth it.

The past four months have been pretty much the same thing. My sister and I stay up here with a few patrols of other analysts, technicians, and sometimes… battlemages. We get reports in; we give reports out. Our world map is the biggest one ever built. It sits in the middle of the room. It's in ultra HD; with the right coordinates or soulic imprint, I can see anyone as if they were standing in the room with me. I often used it to help with our dating sims. Like Oleeme's. It keeps us in top form, keeps the equipment tests up-to-date.

I pulled up a list of soulic imprints we've added to the list. I selected Queen Nexauvia. The world map zoomed in on the marshy lands where she lived. Before I knew it, I was looking at Queen Nexauvia, sitting in her throne, looking quite bored at the whole thing. I walked over to the Illusion imaging device, also called the Illusion Phantom Projector. It allowed my image to appear out of thin air, thanks to nearby quartz crystals. The Queen of Shadows had one in her throne room, as well as one in her chambers. She had her own IPP built into her throne. She could use it to project her own image as well.

I activated Projector 1, the first one ever constructed after the tests on the device were completed. I watched Queen Nexauvia's eyes dart up as she looked at my projection. _"Hello, Masser. Is there something wrong?"_

I shook my head. "Nothing, ma'am. We're just updating you on Operation: Huskless."

She sat up straighter. _"Proceed."_

"It's not going well." That was all I could say.

She nodded, sliding back down in her seat _. "I see… thanks for telling me. How's Operation: Husk Master?"_

I shrugged. "Last I checked, Aurishi was on top of that situation. Leaf and Blossom are getting along famously. It would seem that Blossom's husk state has nearly fallen away. She is also pregnant."

Queen nodded. _"Then… I guess I'll be having another cousin then. … Any news on why our sky is purple? Why can we see a giant **fucking** world hanging out in front of us?"_

I shook my head. I turned back to the world map, zooming out. There were no red markers… no warning of reported incidents. Nothing. "The map doesn't show anything ma'am. Unless our station in the city was destroyed… or if someone couldn't call in an alert… we're sitting in the blind here."

"Brother!" Rascia called from over her shoulder. "We just got an alert!"

"What?" I asked. She got the attention of the Queen too.

"Call from Troop 4; It's a call to action. Several camps have spotted Dwemer in the Imperial City. Also… Nakuma has exited the bathroom."

Nakuma has exited the bathroom? That was good news. Dwemer in the Imperial City… that wasn't.

 _"What?"_ Queen Nexauvia stood up from her throne. _"Nakuma left the bathroom? Good for her. Last time she went on a date with Oleeme… she stayed in there all day trying to feel something for him."_

I looked back at her. "Yeah, I know, right? This is only his twentieth attempt, and he's making some serious improvement on her outlook on life."

"So… we're just going to ignore the call from Troop 4." Rascia looked over at me. She stared for a few seconds before getting another ping on her headset. "Ok… Call from Operation: Sengar. It would seem that Blood-rage lost it in Rimmen. Princess Flufftail wants to know if she should try a new approach with her boyfriend."

 _"She could give him back to me."_ Queen Nexauvia announced angrily. _"And… about the call to action. I'll send my Shadow Squad to go check it out. I'll have them tell me about the situation. Should I give them a seer stone thingy?"_

A seer stone thingy? Curse these simpletons, using such terminology that could figuratively mean anything. "You mean the Seer's Illusionary Projection Device?"

The queen nodded, rolling her hand around as she nodded. _"Yeah, that thing."_

I thought about it. It would allow us to see what was going on down there, and transmit that information to everyone else. "Go ahead. Send in the Shadow Squad. Rascia!" I looked back at her. "Send that delay on the call to action. Tell the battlemages to rally their forces, but not to engage until we have mission intel to give."

"Sir… the Arch-Mage just called in. She confirms Dwemer forces in the Imperial City. Apparently… everyone's dead." Rascia turned back at me. "The Battlemage Corps is preparing to cape fall in."

"Don't let them!" Our leader and commander, Overseer Requen, walked over to join us.

Overseer Requen… he was one of the original founders of the Aldmeri Dominion… one of the few founders still alive anyway. When we had our own civil war four months ago, it was Overseer Fiirnar that ran the Dominion, and Overseer Nrillia was his second-in-command, as well as his lead assault asset. When Overseer Fiirnar wanted a peace treaty with the other nations, Overseer Nrillia saw it as a weakness, and then attacked him. He's been missing for four months now… and Nrillia was killed in action. Overseer Requen, leader of the analysts, and builder of most of our tech, was now in charge of the Dominion. He felt happiest up here in Masser Moon Base. He liked the analytical work, the strategic planning involved in a world war. And he doesn't mind the dating sims either.

"Was the Council in the Imperial City?" Overseer Requen asked as he walked up.

I nodded. "The Council was not in session today, but the location of the war room has not changed. Until we know the status of the White-Gold Tower… we won't know who survived. Arch-Mage already reported in, telling us the Imperial City is destroyed, and everyone has either fled or died."

Overseer Requen nodded. "Interesting development. The War Council reduced to nothing in the matter of seconds. Let's test that theory. Call up all auric signatures of the War Council. Let us see the status of our war efforts. Let's start with the Emperor: Adam Tullius."

I pulled him up on screen. He was sitting in a lawn chair by a beach, sipping a martini. "He's on vacation in Anvil, sir."

Overseer Requen nodded. "That's good news. Now the Blades. Master Steffan." I pulled up his signature. It led us all the way up to Cloud Ruler Temple. He was sitting in a chair, eating an apple. "Imperial Legion: Supreme General Justice." I pulled her up. She was kneeling in the grass outside of the Imperial City with the Arch-Mage. Supreme Justice was slamming her fist on the ground, screaming profanities.

"Dammit, curse it! I should have tried harder." She screamed in the ground.

The Arch-Mage was standing over her, comforting her. "Lillian… you tried your best. I heard you tried to grab peace with them. That's all anyone could ask of you."

"We knew this day was coming! We knew the machines they would bring! And all it took was _one_! They destroyed the whole town with one falling titan." Supreme Justice looked up towards what I assumed was the Imperial City. "We'll get them back for this. Ready your guild, Arch-Mage… we're not done yet. Not by a longshot."

Arch-Mage sighed. "My guild is useless with those screeching devices." Screeching devices?

I looked up at Overseer Requen. "Sir, it sounds like the Mages Guild was brought down by some kind of Silencing technology."

Overseer Requen nodded. "It would make sense."

 _"Um…"_ Oleeme called over his screen. _"Nakuma just asked me if we should try again tomorrow… should I just abandon this now?"_

Rascia shook her head. "No, she's testing you. She wants to see if you're still interested. Stay on course, buddy. I'll get you through this."

I turned my attention back to Overseer Requen. He seemed lost in thought. "I remember we were testing some kind of tonal device the Dwemer were working on when they were launched from this world. The tonal silencers. I wonder… if they kept working on their silencers, it would mean… the magickal warfare we've been planning is already wasted. Don't let those battlemages launch their campaign! It will be the end of them!"

Rascia nodded, "I'll get right on it, brother. First thing's first… I have to guide Oleeme through this tough transition of a date. Nakuma wants to head home early. Before they even had their dinner."

"What are they having?" Overseer Requen walked over to the screen. "Is that her dress? Didn't know Argonians wore white. Looks beautiful."

Rascia nodded. "I picked it out for her. She has me running an operation on Oleeme too. She wants to feel things for him without having to rely on Compatibility to do so. So, I chose this white dress for her. She seemed passionate about looking nice. And she really seemed to drawn to that white dress."

"So… what are they eating?" Overseer Requen asked.

I watched as two giant bowls of spaghetti were carted in. "Oh… oh no."

"We have a red alert!" Overseer Requen screamed. "Warn them both! Do not engage; no not engage! If that dress gets even the slightest stain… this entire mission will fall apart in seconds!"

Rascia nodded, looking at me. "You console Oleeme; I'll handle Nakuma. See if we can get them to put protective wards over their clothes while they eat." I nodded. Man… this was going to take a few minutes. Hope those battlemages can withhold on departing in a drastic flair into a possible deathtrap without being told to stay put. It's not like they have a completely battle driven commander. It's Erandur… he's always level headed. Even though he has a pregnant wife and soon-to-be-born child, which has been causing him serious amounts of worry and stress over every little invasion ever.

…

[Vatu]

The camp was in quite a rush to get going. Erandur basically said that all the Battlemage Troops were gearing up and preparing to cape fall into the Imperial City, launching from their respective camps. Once we hit the air… there is no going back. Unless we decide to undo our capes and fall to our possible deaths. In that case… well… we still have magicka. We were told the Dwemer were in the city, basically destroying the whole thing. Hans just got word from the Arch-Mage that it's happening. The war we've been planning is a go.

I nodded to Primrose as I walked up to her. I was securing my cape, and wanted to know if she wanted any help with hers. "Hey, Prim. Umm… nice day, isn't it?" She ignored me as she attached her falling cape. She actually turned away from me, giving me one of the coldest shoulders I've ever received. "Need any help with your cape?" She wore the traditional battlemage armor. It was made specifically for the falling cape to be snapped on, but Prim's always had a hard time getting the buttons to snap.

Prim ignored me still, and that's when Crassi showed up. "I'll help you." She walked up to Primrose, giving me the evil eye as she started pushing on Prim's buttons.

"Thanks." Primrose replied. "Nice to know I have friends I can count on." Even from here, I could feel the burn.

I looked back at Junna. She looked slightly concerned, but smiled at me as she attached her own falling cape. "Hey, Vatu… didn't you tell me you dreamed of this last night?"

I nodded. "I did. We all launched to the Imperial City. And… well… we all died."

Crassi and Primrose, as well as a few other battlemages, all looked over to me.

"And you mention this now?!" Crassi scolded as she turned to walk up to me.

"He mentioned it this morning to me." Prim said, turning away from us.

Crassi looked over to her and then back to me. "And neither of you felt it was important to bring it up?" She glanced from me to her. "The both of you. Side bar." She looked at the other battlemages. "The rest of you… check your enchantments. If we're going in hard, I want to know we've got backup gear in case of Silencing. Got it?" They all nodded.

Crassi grabbed Primrose's arm and then rushed over to me. She grabbed my arm next and she pulled Primrose and me away from everyone else. Junna cast a small glance at me, nodding a farewell to me as she started checking her scrolls and wands.

I glanced at Primrose. She was still ignoring me, looking in the other direction as the two of us were ushered to a private hilltop. When we got there, Crassi released our arms, giving us both a hard glance. "Ok, you two… this ends now. This stupid argument of yours has officially affected our mission." She looked at me. "You had a premonition dream and thought it wasn't worth bothering me with?"

"You weren't around. Primrose was. I told her."

Crassi slapped me upside my helm. "But I was still in the camp, dipshit. You were distracted by your girlfriend." She looked at Primrose. "And you!" Primrose flinched. "You sat on the information Vatu entrusted to you. You might hate him because of his new relationshit, but you can't let your personal feelings get in the way of valuable intel."

Primrose looked at me for a second before looking away. "I didn't put any credibility in his dream. He said a Daedra Lord spoke to him. They can't interfere with us anymore."

Crassi smacked Primrose upside her helmet. "Bullshit!" Crassi looked at the two of us. "Here's what I see. And I see it every fucking night. I've seen it since we were trainees." She pointed at me. "We have an antisocial Khajiit boy with temper problems. And we have an antisocial recluse healer with emotional connection problems. Together, the two of you make a pretty perfect fucked up couple. And you two worked. Primrose would satisfy her healing tendencies with the emotionally bombarded Vatu, comforting his already overwhelmed emotions. She had someone she could fix, and Vatu had someone he could trust, and emotionally connect to. The two of you needed each other. And now… here's where it gets really fun." Crassi started rubbing her palms together excitedly.

"Great… another theory…" Primrose sighed. Because Crassi was in love with Ruins and Dwarves, she loved to make characters, and figure out the way they would interact with each other. She's been obsessed with figuring us out. So far… she hasn't gotten very close to the truth.

Crassi pointed at me, smiling as she started another round of 'guess the motive'. "I know exactly when it all changed. You! At the temple! You lost your bloodlust, that darker side of you that was slowly crippling your emotional body!" She pointed at Primrose. "And you… emotional healer. Once Vatu was fully healed… you no longer felt that pull, that need to fix him…"

Her ears perked up. "What? I never mentioned _that_ to you."

Crassi nodded. "I observed it, remember? So, here's what happened. Vatu was fixed from his thing, his problem. And I'm guessing that Junna girl had already flirted with him. Made him felt excited for life, right?"

I nodded. "Kind of. She's a fighter."

Crassi nodded. "And Primrose is sweet, right?"

I nodded. And soft, very soft hearted.

Crassi looked back at Primrose. "And you! When you first saw Vatu with Junna, how did you feel?"

Primrose looked away. "Sad…"

Crassi shook her head. "No, you didn't! You felt relieved! I saw it on your face! You looked happy that your burden was finally lifted. You were happy that Vatu had someone else, but at the same time… you felt confused over why you were relieved, and sad that Vatu would ditch you after everything you've been through."

Primrose was about to answer, but Crassi stopped her. "And here's why! You're a healer, and healers always, always, _always_ get attached to their patients. Vatu was damaged, and ever since you entered his mind, you've been tethered to him. You feel his pain, and want it to stop. And the best way is to make him feel loved. And you did that. You comforted him, healed him near to your own breaking point, over and over… and…"

She looked at me. "You! You were too scared, to emotionally burdened to tell her to stop. You wanted to be loved, you wanted to feel comfort. She kept you in line, and you needed that. You needed Primrose, and she needed you to feel better. Like a parasite, you attached to her. And once you were healed, it left a void that needed filled, but at least Primrose was free! And now… she's confused because she put a lot of effort into freeing you, healing you… and now… she has no idea where she wants to be."

Crassi looked back at Primrose. Her eyes were wide. "She's right… first it was Nisha correctly saying that I had feelings for Vatu. And Crassi's right. It all started with the healing session. But before that, I still wanted to be around you…" She looked at me. "I… I couldn't explain it. I was drawn to you. But…" She closed her eyes. "After the healing session in your brain… the walk through those nightmares… you scared me. I knew what was inside you. What needed fixed. It was a daunting task. And now…" She looked at her hands. "I feel… nothing. No regret, no… attachment. I feel free…but…" She looked back at me. "I still…I can't explain it. We've spent a lot of time together, Vatu. We've said things… did things… we were great friends. We were in a relationship, even if we wouldn't admit it. And when you left me for Junna… it hurt… a lot. But I _did_ feel relieved. I felt like my job was complete. I wanted to fix you… and you're fixed."

I watched as tears rolled down her cheeks. "But… I still want you. I can't explain it. I don't love you… but I want you. I want to know that the time I invested was time well spent." She reached to place a hand on my cheek, and against my better judgement, I actually let her. This was going to bite me in the ass one day. Junna can read my eyes; if she thinks I'm cheating on her… I'm so dead. And I'm not even going to mention what Nexa would do if she knew.

Primrose touched my face, resting it on my cheek. I could feel her hand trembling. "I want to feel what I felt when I first touched you. Countless hours of healing… countless hours of snuggling… when we kissed. I want to feel that again. We were so close…" More tears were rolling down her cheek. "And you gave it away. Just like that. No second thoughts. No hesitation. No warning! Just… new girlfriend… and I had to like it. I even had to teach her how to be a healer. All so that she could heal your wounds now. My replacement… fully."

I always thought Primrose was mad at me. To know the full reason, I can't say I'm all that surprised. Primrose was always sweet, always loving. I'm… I'm not the right man for her. I never was. And I knew that from the start. I tried to tell her that from the start. And this is how it ended for us: both of us… hurt.

Crassi looked at me. "Vatu… your turn."

I looked over at Crassi. "I don't have anything to say in defense. I'm an asshole, and I hurt Primrose… and Nexa. I know that. I knew that when I offered to date Junna. I knew I was going to hurt them both."

Crassi nodded. "So, why did you choose to date her then? You knew it would hurt Prim, and the Queen of Shadows…"

I shrugged. "I thought… I was thinking…" What was I thinking? Why did I do what I did? "When I stepped into that machine… I came out a new person. A new Khajiit. I didn't know what I would do, who I would become. I just knew I didn't have to hold back anymore."

I glanced at Primrose. She was still silently crying. "And… I hurt Prim enough as it was. I knew it was going to hurt more, but I thought… she'd be safer away from me. I don't exactly have the safest record… nor do I know how to restrain myself. It would be easy to blame my blood-rage on everything I do… but just earlier today, even without the blood-rage, I still ravaged a whole town. _I_ did that. It took everything Junna had just to calm me down, and I was raging because I didn't want anyone to hurt her. And Junna's tough. Imagine what I would do if it was Primrose." I looked her in the eye. She refused to take her eyes off me. "Primrose would never forgive me if I killed someone because of her."

Crassi rolled her eyes. "Sure, blame her meekness on your reason for dumping her."

Primrose looked away, sighing. "You left me… to protect me? To keep me from getting hurt… by hurting me?" She glared at me. "Fuck you, Vatu."

Crassi clapped her hands. "Ok, now we have a conversation. Just what I wanted."

Davilia and Erandur walked over to us, and the three of us stopped what we were doing to see what they wanted. Just like I would think, Erandur was crossing his arms. "Are we good here? Can we launch before someone decides to cancel? Or before the Dwemer take over another town?" Erandur asked as he checked his c-ball.

Crassi looked at me and then at Primrose. "Can you two operate together now?"

Primrose wiped a tear away, glancing at me. "Sure…"

I shrugged. "I always could."

Crassi looked back at me, groaning. "Vatu, you're the one I'm worried about. You're new to the whole… feeling freely thing. You're going to make a mistake. And for us all… I hope you don't make one today."

Gods, that reminds me of that stupid dream again.

I threw up my arms in protest. "Why me? Why am I so important?"

Erandur answered for Crassi. "You're our Sengar. Our invincible tank. Remember?"

Oh… right. I tend to forget I'm the main offensive force for this unit, with the exclusion of Erandur or Thomas.

I nodded to Crassi. "I'll keep it in check. I swear."

Prim scoffed at the suggestion. "Right… didn't you just finish telling us how you slaughtered a whole town later this morning?" She glared at me.

I nodded. "Right! I'll keep it in check."

Erandur nodded. "Ok then. Everyone cape up. We're…. wait a second…" His c-ball was ringing. "Troop 4."

 _"Troop 4, disengage."_ General Hans spoke through the flat slab of stone. _"New intel speaks of Silencers. We're aborting the mission until we have a new plan."_

Erandur stared at the c-ball for a few seconds, calculating. "Sir… we're trained for anti-magic warfare. I suggest we proceed as planned. We can't let the Dwemer get a stronger hold than they already have."

 _"Exactly why we're disengaging. The Shadow Squad has been released. Their intel will guide our new plan of operation. Go back to camp and get some rest. Tomorrow might be a long day."_

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

 _So... yeah... See you next chapter.  
_


	8. Ride of the Harpies

**Cearbhail:**

 _This chapter is starting to show how good this is starting to get. I hope I continue this amount of everything. Of course... I have next chapter planned already, but probably won't act on it for... a month and then... I'll probably forget it.  
_

 _Oh... and enjoy =^^=_

* * *

[Meesei]

"Warlord Julanza. We're in. Beginning operation: _Imperial Oversight_. Can you see and hear us alright?"

 _"Yes, Shadow One; we have visual/audio. Permission to begin operation."_ It was good to hear Warlord Julanza over my earpiece. Say what you want about the Aldmeri Dominion, but their head researcher in magickal studies, and their current overseer: Overseer Requen, has built some of the greatest tech for the Dominion. It's no wonder they were able to mobilize the way they had. Then again… they also had that Nrillia woman. She had been able to coordinate the entire Dominion just by having one zombie in each unit that acted as the coordination specialist. With Nrillia gone, and Overseer Fiirnar missing in action, Overseer Requen was doing all he could to keep the Dominion as coordinated as possible. And that meant technological superiority. The Masser Moon Base was running with analysts at all times, and when it wasn't working for blocking reasons… squads like mine are called in.

I almost couldn't believe we were finally being called out on an actual mission. I've run many simulation runs the past few weeks… and having control of my own squad was something else. Shadowblade Meesei… that's a title I'm afraid I'll never get used to. And the training I had to go through with my… with Shadow Master Julanza… well… it wasn't pretty intense. Those of us born under Shadow are not exactly well equip with learn Shadow, as well as other magicka. The Mages, Rituals, and Atronachs make it look so easy. The Apprentices… not so much. And now I can't say I blame them for their scatter-heads. Having to face that Soul Chamber… I still shiver when I think of it. I almost didn't make it out. If it wasn't for Oleeme's past recollection of the chamber and the things I would have to face… the things I would have to accept in order to survive without becoming a Husk… I'm not sure I _could_ _have_ made it.

Glancing back at Nakuma… my squad's assigned Shadowwraith… I couldn't help but wonder how she made it through the Soul Chamber in one piece. I mean sure… she's scatter-brained as ever, even though she's a Husk now. Her first visit through the chamber ruined her focus and made her emotionally hyper-sensitive. And ever since her brother tried to murder her… she's been a Husk. She stands in the back of our formations, silently staring into the Void… waiting for me to give her orders… direction. I can't believe at one time I wanted to kill her… and sometimes I still do, but for new reasons now. I hated her because she was a scatter-headed Mage that would flirt with my boyfriend… and now… I hate her because she can't even hold a full conversation with me without Oleeme holding her precious little hand. And to make matters worse… Ram-ku…

I glanced from Nakuma over to Ram-ku. His light blue scales seemed to sparkle even in this cloudy weather. He refused to cut his black feathers down to a shorter size and because of that, his feathers had grown down to his shoulder. It made him look cuter. I wished we were on better terms, but… with everything going on… and with the whole 'try to kill Nakuma' thing I occasionally do… he still refuses to talk to me. And after I stabbed him… he outright hates me. It's even worse because I almost killed him while trying to kill someone else protecting Nakuma… who I tried to kill!

Ram-ku saw me staring at him and he gave me a stink eye. "What's wrong, _Shadowblade_? Have any orders for me?"

I thought about giving him a sarcastic/possibly romantic suggestion… but those never seem to hit him well. "I'm sure I could think something up if you wanted. Something involving our tongues… or lack of clothes."

He glared at me. "How about a dagger and your back?" He suggested right back.

I'd have to let him have this one. I wasn't going to let myself get angry with him. He had legit reasons for hating me… heck… I hate myself. My time in the Soul Chamber proved that to me. I had to live through my own hatred of my actions… the things that brought me to this point in my life. It also brought a lot of clarity to me… a lot of deep-rooted understanding of my inner demons. I think that's why Shadowwraiths go through the Soul Chamber. They command a lot of magickal energy, including Shadow… an element only found with Argonians and Lilmothiit.

 _"Shadow One, this is Lord of Shadows. Stop flirting with Scale 2 and begin Operation: Imperial Oversight."_ My father groaned into my ear.

"Roger…. Sorry." I replied back.

I looked away from the squad over to the Imperial City. It wasn't too far away: only a short brisk run. Even from here, I could see the crumbling walls, the smoke and fire rising from the center of the town. "Are you seeing this?" I asked Dad.

 _"We are indeed. Transmitting feed to all active units. Masser Base is transmitting to all parties, Shadow One."_

"Wait…" I accidentally squeaked. "So… everyone in the Collective…"

 _"Saw you flirting with your squadmate… yes."_

Dammit. Now I know how Nexa felt when we saw her kissing Vatu while in front of us all.

I kept my groan to myself as I waved to my team: Vistha, Ram-Ku, and Nakuma. "Ok, we're not sure of the Dwemer abilities of jamming Shadow, so… we're going to send in a test. Nakuma, think you can summon an orb of Shadow… send it through the gate?"

She nodded. "I will send along a ball of Shadow Fire and a ball of magicka fire. Let us see the results." Her robotic voice reported to me. Two orbs of fire materialized in her hands. She launched both orbs, letting them race towards the Imperial City. Before they even reached the gates, both of them fizzled out.

 _"It would seem that Shadow is also affected."_

Nakuma nodded. "And seeing how Shadow is an extension of an Argonian's shadow art, we could determine the possibility that all soulic arts are thereby extinguished upon entry. The Khajiits' Sengar state would be just as useless upon entry. Troop 4's special tank would be rendered useless if launched. Nordic Shouts would be just as finite. Any other Soulic art would be just as finite."

"Ok, go to question two: malachite assistance." I said to Nakuma.

She pulled out a small dagger. She wrapped it in Shadow, placing what the Shadowwraiths called a 'mark'. She wrapped a small spell around the dagger before attaching a malachite ring around it. "Beginning Question: Malachite." She teleported the dagger into the Imperial City.

 _"Shadow One, this is Oversight. We're picking up signals of Shadow within the Imperial City. It would seem that malachite has neglected the Silencing enveloping the city. We have a small signal from within the town… a break in the Silence."_ One of the analysts from Masser called down to us.

I nodded. "Great news. Now…" I looked back at Nakuma. "Call it back."

"Activating Recall." She said, snapping her fingers. When she did, nothing happened. "Recall has failed."

 _"So… we can pick up the signal from within the town, but your magicka cannot touch the dagger? The Silencing must be blocking your spell before it can even touch the dagger from within the town."_ A new voice called over our comms.

 _"If that's true, Troop 4, any Marked soldiers sent into the town could not escape. Try a different approach. Have a Shadowscale shadowport in to the town. See if they can Shadowport out."_ Oversight replied.

 _"We already know that won't work."_ Queen Nexauvia replied back. _"Lilmoth has much the same quarantine sent in place. We can't shadowport in to Lilmoth, and I'm guessing the Imperial City is much like that. The fact that we got anyone inside the first time is remarkable."_

 _"But, we also know that malachite was able to block that Silencing. During the world Silencing, malachite allowed us to bypass the Silencing effect. Shadowporting worked during that period. Try Shadowporting to the knife, pick it up, and Shadowport back out. Use the malachite to protect your aura of mana."_ That was Troop 4's leader.

I looked at my group. "Any volunteers?"

Vistha raised his hand. "I'll go. So, we're doing a drop-in with Shadow, testing our ability to drop into an area without any non-non-Silencers?"

There was a pause of the comms. _"Sounds about right."_ Oversight replied. _"We do need to test the ability of teleportation magick without protection. Dropping in a squad might be crucial. So, pick a target which would be your blocking knife and drop yourself in right on top of it. And then come back to us."_

"Roger." Vistha nodded. He glanced at me, his dark-red scales looking extra menacing today. He nodded once to me before taking a deep breath. With a snap of his Shadow, he was suddenly gone with a puff of Shadow.

I held up my c-ball, which was a small flat-screen crystal ball. I could see everything Vistha was seeing. He was standing right over the knife. _"I made it in just fine. No complications. Now… trying to shadowport without the knife. … Confirmed. I can't do it. Now… with the knife… … … I can't."_

 _"What do you mean you can't?"_ Oversight asked.

 _"I already briefed you on this!"_ A new voice commed in. _"The Silencers… they're not like the ones we used. They're… tonal. They get inside your head… shut you down spiritually. I could feel it reverberating in my skull… making it useless. I couldn't concentrate for the life of me!"_

 _"She's right. There's this… light ringing in my earholes. I can feel it… in the back of my mind. I'm no mage, but even I can't ignore this. And every time I try to summon Shadow, the ringing gets louder … pulsier. I can't explain it. And the knife… it's useless in my hands. Using an enchanted weapon seems to need concentration to work, I guess. I can't explain it… it's like my mind forgot anything it knew about magicka… which wasn't a lot honestly. How about sending Nakuma over? She might be able to get us out of there."_

 _"No!"_ The newer voice screamed. _"No one else. Abort mission."_

There was a long pause through the comms. _"Wraith One, you're cleared for experiment."_ Oversight acknowledged.

Nakuma nodded. "Proceeding." She vanished in a puff of Shadow as well.

I heard a pop right next to Vistha. She reached down but then she quickly grabbed her head, screaming painfully as she crumbled to the ground. _"Make it stop; make it stop! It's too much!"_ I watched through Vistha's recording as he reached down to help her. Blood was leaking out through her earholes. Whoa… this was intense. I couldn't bear to watch this.

 _"Here."_ Vistha passed the malachite knife to her.

She could barely even reach up, but when she did, her eyes shuddered in more pain. _"I can't… it's too loud."_

 _"Get her out of there! Shadow Two, take operation into town; show us what we need to know. Shadow One; proceed with rest of operation. Scale 2, get Wraith 1 away from the Silencers. Shadow Two, orders are in. Find the Silencers and eliminate them. If they prove unapproachable for any reason, toss enchanted marked daggers at target. We know we can Shadowport things in… and we will drop as many bombs as it will take if it means destroying them."_ Oversight fed us our orders.

 _"You see, I told you! The poor girl can't even concentrate enough to get them out of there… and she's a Husk! They don't ever lose their concentration. Imagine a regular battlemage going in there! It would be a mess!"_

 _"Shadow Two acknowledges. Beginning assignment."_ The other Shadowblade, Deejena, and squad leader for Shadow Squad 2, replied lightly into the comms.

I looked back at Ram-ku… the only person left on my squad. I sighed as I looked away. "Well… we shouldn't leave the rest of our team waiting. Let's go save Nakuma."

He almost bit back a retort, but I guess he couldn't help himself. "First time for everything, right?"

I only rolled my eyes and checked my gear. I had all my weapons on me, including my new personal favorite weapon: the wood elf hunting bow. And since I have a very potent knowledge in poisons… every arrow had a different alchemic poison on them… some were harmless… distractions. Others were… well… explosive won't even begin to explain it. Some offer confusing side-effects like paranoia and random shouting at allies… as well as killing. Some offer some kind of fear-inducing effect. And others… well… lead to people running around in circles screaming bloody murder and shooting their bows off at everything.

I took the lead as I led us towards the Imperial City. Ram-ku was lightly jogging right behind me. The man was one of the fastest runners in the whole Shadow Legion. If he really wanted to, he could just ditch me and race for the Imperial City. I almost wanted him to do it… I really can't begin to fix things between us. The two of us are almost as damaged as Nexa and Vatu are. I hear he's even started dating again. Some Tower girl. She's been making all his weapons and armor ever since we ended the war with the Dominion. I've been trying to meet her, if not only to see what she was like… and to be honest… perhaps slip her something strong. I'm… I'm trying to be a better person. I really am… but there's some things I just can't fix about myself. Petty jealousy might be one of them.

 _"We've been caught."_ Vistha's voice called over the comms. _"Nakuma's screams caught the attention of a local patrol. We're surrounded. I knocked her out to shut her up… but… it's only a matter of time."_

 _"Wraith Two, drop us on top of them."_ Deejena's voice called in.

 _"With pleasure."_ Oleeme called right back.

"Dammit! Wait for us!" I called in as well.

 _"Portal ripping open. Ready yourself."_ Oleeme replied.

I didn't know what he was planning but I pulled out my bow, grabbing an arrow. Just as soon as I figured out what he was doing, a large shadowportal ripped open right in front of me and Ram-ku. I didn't have time to stop as I charged through it. I felt the Shadow take me for a second and I only had a second to orient myself.

I was floating in the sky just ten feet above an old building, one of the few still standing. And I stepped off just a little too far. And I was already falling off the building. As I started falling, I felt an arm wrap around my waist.

I didn't snap my head around to see who it was holding me; I had a few tall buff golden elves with futuristic armor starting to form around what I suspected was Vistha and Nakuma's hiding spot. Those must have been the Dwemer. I didn't have time to think about it. I pulled my readied arrow back, taking aim at the first Dwemer I saw.

Condition Black: an alchemical solution designed for warfare against the Aedra. It was an explosive alchemist fire with an added bonus of acid-consuming acid that would just as quickly melt through muscle tissue just as quickly. It was a very potent thing for me to use… especially with squad mates just below, waiting to be rescued. This wasn't time for me to doubt anything. I had to just fire this thing and make a run for it. I only had the one. Hopefully, I won't be needing more than just one.

"Hey, uglies!" I screamed to the small squad of Dwemer right below me.

They glanced up as me. My arrow let loose, crashing into the lead Dwemer's head. And just like that, I saw the benefits of using poisons over magick. Alchemy to the rescue. The rescue being a massive explosion. One that blew through the Dwemer with a thick cloud of Condition Black.

My arrow hit one right in the faceplate, and he took its effect immediately. The arrow shattered on his helm and it not only exploded but covered the area with a thin mist of Condition Black. The remaining Dwemer were raising their rifles to shoot me, but the panicked screams of my target quickly drew their attention away from me.

I was quickly hulled back to the roof by Ram-ku. "Idiot." He mumbled as he pulled me back.

"You're one to talk." I mumbled right back. "You want me dead so bad… you should have let me fall."

He smirked at hearing that. "Next time… I will." He shouldered past me to look over the railing. I looked as well.

The Dwemer I hit was already being consumed. His armor wasn't really fading away, but I can see that the gas was hitting him in his less-covered spots. He was scratching at his joints, his arms… and his neck. His screams were inhumane… and to imagine, I only had the one arrow. I could already see the mist rolling over two other Dwemer, both of which were starting to react to the acid as well.

The other Dwemer started screaming things, ushering the other surviving members away from the rolling mist. I smiled at seeing them squirm away from it. "You see that?"

 _"We're receiving your visual. Good job testing out Condition Black on their armor. It seems to be strong enough to bypass their under-armor. Good."_ Oversight sounded almost amused by my report.

 _"Fire Team Alchemist is on sight now, setting up ordinance. Give us coordinates and we'll send the Rain."_ I knew enough about Lilmothiit special forces to know that they love launching their Rain of Fire. _"We have 20 rounds of Condition Black, 20 Condition Red, and 10 Condition White. Ready requests."_

I only shook my head. "None yet, standby."

 _"Careful with these calls, Shadow One and Two. If you get hit with even one spray… you'll end up like me."_ Sparvia leader Ruulan mused into my ear. He's been working closely to our group and was already on standby to come join us if things got heavy in a hurry. It's looking like that kind of day.

I tapped my earpiece. "You got it. Last thing I want is to look like you." I know… I'm really trying to be a different person. More… uplifting. I think I need this change of attitude. But… it's not easy so I have to force it for now. At least until I feel more comfortable in my skin.

The retreating two Dwemer were quickly readying themselves. I could see them aiming their… I'm not sure what they were. Cannons? Small… shiny cannons? I wasn't really sure what they were, but they were aimed right at me. And right as they brought their weapons up, I saw two puffs of smoke appear right behind them. And that's when Deejena, perhaps my closest friend at the moment, rushed through the guy aiming his whatever right at me.

Deejena might be soft-spoken but… let's just say that she lets her sword do the talking for her. As soon as she appeared from her shadowport, she was immediately on the other side of the Dwemer, his head rolling right off his shoulders. The other two Dwemer still remaining turned to face her. She spun herself around, slashing with her one katana. The two Dwemer screamed as their hands fell off their arms.

 _"Apparently, our weapons are effective."_

That's when I saw Deejena's specially-crafted nearly invincible katana sunder in half. "Or… that can happen." I called into my mic.

 _"More swords can be made."_ Oversight replied.

Deejena was still looking down at her broken blade. "My family's… sacred sword." She sounded so crushed. I would hate to be her right now.

The two remaining Dwemer ran off, screaming in pain as they tried to stop their bleeding hand-stumps. I heard one of them shouting a status update… and as soon as they mentioned it… I heard all sorts of alarms going off all around us. I looked up at the sky… and I saw the many airships circling overhead of us. Falling mechanical aircraft was now approaching us. And as I stood there… watching as various aircraft headed our way… I felt the worst feeling I've ever felt: people watching me. I'm an assassin. I'm never watched. And… I had the feeling several waves of enemies were staring me down at the end of a scope.

As soon as my stomach twisted in a knot that told me to run for my life, I screamed, "Run!"

Just in time too. I hopped over the edge with Ram-ku right behind me. Right as we cleared the nearly crumbled ceiling, all sorts of red energy fell down around us. I could hear the light rave show happening all around me, and the energy was strong enough to break brick. I could feel the building falling to pieces as we fell to the ground.

"Kill Squad Alchemist, if you're going to do anything, now would be the time!"

…

[SL Bzeirn Ushopia]

Ah, the _Pride Win_ , the finest Dwemer flying aircraft since the _Hide and Burn_. It's been a whole… ten hours or something since we left for the mission? My men are starving. And I'm tired. I couldn't wait to get myself a bowl of ramen and lay down on my cot. With the regular soldiers now here to help secure the crashed Washimidium, it would seem that my team, the only surviving Commando unit at the moment, has earned some R &R. I'm not complaining. We fought hard to Tone out the town. It's not our faults the gods interfered… like we planned they would.

I looked back at my battered squad. "Ok everyone. Get some rest, have some fun. And let's not forget…"

I was cut off by the sounding alarms. _"Hostiles present in Sector 3. Commando Unit 2, report to your Hummingbird."_

"… To be continued." I replied with a heavy sigh. I checked my weapon. It was still full; good. I took the lead as we raced through the hallways to the hanger.

We rushed through other Dwemer, each one cursing at us as we rammed them into the walls to get past them. "Sorry, you're not important!" I screamed as I tackled two young ones into a water fountain. Just for kicks, my squadmates accidentally banged their heads around as they scuffled past them. I know what you're thinking… they're noobs… who cares? It's character building. For my team; they need the fun.

Before we knew it, we were right back at the hanger. Our assignment Hummingbird was waiting for us. A small six-person carrier attack craft with miniguns mounted on both sides and two frontal cannons that the pilot operated. It's not much… but it's what we need for small incursions, and small conflicts. And when there are ten of us flying around… you better bet these primitive cultures will be struggling to survive.

I was the first onboard, and I stood at the doorway as I ushered everyone on. As soon as we were on, I nodded to Rzuna to take us up. Our pilot was quick about turning on the Hummingbird, and before we knew it, we were already taking off. Several other Hummingbirds were right behind us. I guess we were fronting the attack. Yay.. I'm being sarcastic. I hate taking the front. I think of the other five squads of Commandos that died just earlier today. And when I think of that… I think of us being in the front. I know this will end badly. I just don't know how yet.

"Ok, so… if we're going to do this… we're going to do this right." I said as I looked up at Rzuna. "Play it."

"Play it? Already? Can't we… wait until we massacre a small village or something?" She glanced back at me.

"We're going to war. Let them know we're serious."

She nodded. "Ok, but I'm calling it in." She replied. She tapped on the communication channel. "This is Thunderbird One… we're going to begin Operation: Harpy's Revenge."

There was a long pause. _"Are you serious? At a time like this?"_

Rzuna nodded, more to herself than anyone incapable of seeing her. "Yeah… I'm a little apprehensive about it too. So… are we good? We have a copy of Ride of the Harpies right here, ready to go. I'm sure the other Hummingbirds can get them going within a few seconds too. If we link up our music at the same time… it can be really effective, I just know it. Maybe."

There was another long pause. _"This is going to be a long war, isn't it? Just try not to kill everything in sight. We're not funding the apocalypse yet. Hear me? No Apocalypse now!"_

Rzuna nodded again. "Got it, sir. All Hummingbirds, sync Ride of the Harpies! We're two minutes from target. Ready all speakers, volume: epic. We'll strike with the setting sun behind us! Count on three. One… two… three, now!"

And just like that, the speakers on the outside of our Hummingbirds started to play off. And if that wasn't crazy enough, I could see a few Hummingbirds starting to float in front of us, swerving right and left as they got into character. Flying right next to us was a normal squad of noobs. All of which were sitting on their helmets.

Hyzori glanced over at the other airship, smiling as he yelled, "Hey! Why do you noobs always sit on your helmets?"

One of the noobs shrugged at the question. "We don't want our balls shot off!"

Hyzori found that incredibly funny until he stopped to think about it. I watched as he slowly started to sit himself up, removing his helmet and resting his butt underneath it. When he saw me looking at him, he shrugged. "What? It can't hurt… right?"

I shrugged. "I'm not going to say anything." I hope they don't have anything acidic on hand.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

 _So, Ride of the Valkyrie and a reference to Gate. Love it.  
_


	9. Heart's Soul

**Cearbhail:**

 _So, instead of... well... you'll know. So, nothing I should need to say about this before we start. If anyone has any questions, you know how to ask me.  
_

 _Oh... and enjoy =^^=_

* * *

[Meesei]

I'm so glad the Imperial City is one giant series of sewers. After spending the last few minutes running as fast as I could to escape the flying Dwemer machines, those red energy blasts raining down all around us, we were lucky to even think of diving into the sewers. We were even luckier to make it in one piece. Everything else past that has been a battle. Evading patrols, eliminating patrols… you get the gist. We're hiding in a long series of underground tunnels filled with water, goblins, crap, and shadows. So many shadows. And what's even better… the tonal thingies… we can't hear them down here. Bad news… we can't Shadowport out of here. Those tonal things still surround the city. We need to clear the city first before we can escape. Not to mention, it was still our mission to find and eliminate each and every silencer in the town.

So, as much as the team went, everyone made it down to the sewers without too much harm. Deejena was mourning the loss of her family katana; she was still sitting up in one of the old broken sewage pipes, glaring uselessly at the broken blade. She wouldn't take her eyes off the thing. Nakuma and Oleeme were trying their best to keep their heads clear and find ways to plug up their earholes to keep the silencers from taking a massive toll on their minds. Oleeme was also trying to get his crystal ball to work. He was trying to call Oversight, see if someone was coming to collect us… or if we were on our own. The two replacements, Onastvee and Neetsa, were holed up at the other end of the tunnel. Neetsa took a bad hit falling into the sewer, almost broke his arm landing on one of the fallen road bricks. The two of them were hanging away from everyone else. While Neetsa was nursing his injured arm, Onastvee was focusing her attention on one of the Dwemer's hand cannons. She was trying to figure out how it worked. Nakuma was standing beside her, silently observing the weapon. Vistha was busy leaning over Ram-ku… who was injured taking a round for me. One of those red energy beams hit him on the back of his left leg. When he fell to the ground… we noticed the manhole. It was my decision to go to the sewers. It worked. I'm missing a few feathers from collecting the crumbled Ram-ku… but we're all right.

Of course, it wasn't as easy as jumping down and then… we're clear. No, it was jump down, evade the multiple red energy blasts raining down on top of us, breaking down the street on top of us; grab Ram-ku, sprinting with his broken body through the falling road… receive a good knock on the head by a falling road brick… stumble, land in the filthy water… and then barely escape a barrage of red energy crashing down all around you… quickly making the water around you come to a boil from the heat of the energy blasts; slowly get cooked alive… and barely have enough time and strength to pull yourself out and race into a nearby tunnel before the first squad of heavily armored Dwemer jumped into the sewers… only to track you on nothing but the slime you dragged out behind you into the tunnels. Try escaping from them when they can see your heat signature. It's not easy. They have great firing power too. Luckily… like I mentioned earlier… our magick works down here. Shadowporting, even locally inside the tunnels, is a lifesaver. It saved me from being killed. Saved us all from being killed.

So, we managed to kill a few squads, evade a few larger patrols, and pretty much slid through the shit-crammed pipes to a few lost secluded areas of the sewer, far from any Dwemer patrols. And we've been here for a few hours. We're not sure what's going on outside. We're not sure if anyone knows we're down here… but we're here. We're alive… and so far…. That's all that matters.

And so we sat here… silently waiting. I could hear the occasional thump of feet above us, which made us all go silent… glaring up at the floor above us as if we expected it to blow up any second, Dwemer falling down on top of us like some kind of horror book. But they never did. We'd hear their boots pass overhead of us, slowly make their way further into the tunnel. Sometimes, we'd hear screams and barks of goblins… the pulse sounds of the Dwemers' light cannons, and then silence. The goblins hadn't found us yet, but I didn't expect them to. Not unless they can breathe underwater and in crap. I don't expect that they could.

After the first hour, I started turning my attention to my bow and my swords. I wanted to make sure I had all my alchemical poisons ready. I had a few blinding flasks left. If used correctly, we could get the jump on another patrol, get their gear, and make a run for it. I had a few alchemist fires left too. Probably best if I hold onto these. A few bottles of holy oil. That would make a nice layer across a sewer tube if we needed to close off a whole area. If the Dwemer as badass as I have been led to believe though… they'll just walk through the flames to us, never ceasing their weapons' fire at us. So far they've been very hard to bring down.

After what I assumed was the second hour, I finally decided to go talk to everyone, see how they were doing. We've been trying to keep as quiet as possible; no idea if the Dwemer are close enough to actually hear us, find us… kill us. As it was, I haven't heard any boots in at least 20 minutes. No clatter, no goblins barking… no weapon fire. Just… nothing.

I pushed myself up. "Ok, I think we've been here long enough."

"Standard protocol is 12 hours before movement." Vistha said with a light growl, lifting his head up. The past two possible hours, he'd never left Ram-ku's side.

I nodded. "Yeah, but we're also on a timed mission. We have to find and destroy the silencers."

Nakuma shook her head. "It will be no use. As we've discovered… the enemy has too much firepower on their side; trained too well for us. We were lucky to make it this far; luck will not favor us a second time."

Vistha nodded. "Nak's got a point. You saw what they did to us… and what will happen to Nak and Ol once we leave this secluded room. Best I see… we're dragging three bodies out with us." He pointed his thumb back at Ram-ku, who was sleeping soundly behind him. "Ram's not going to be moving his leg anytime soon. Got burned real good; add on our two Shadowwraiths… and what do we get? Only two remaining scales that will be free and able to fight. And I'm guessing that will end up being you and Jen."

"Won't be me." Deejena said with a sigh, finally taking her eyes off her sword. "My only weapon is trashed."

Vistha sighed, looking at me. "Then that leaves me and you, leader. And… I'm not going out like a punk. If shit hits my helm, I'm going to paint the walls with my blood, their blood, _the void_ , even your blood if you step in front of me." That's our Vistha, he was our little… he's nice once you get to know him. I'm almost sure of it. The Void… I was just like him a few months ago. He and I were the bad ones in the group. Now… it's just him. He's the only one of us that still has a rough edge. Everyone else is pretty sane. Well, I'm not going to say 'sane'. I'm still very twisted, but… I'm trying! I'm trying really hard to be a better person these days. Being a leader kind of pushes that on me too. The whole… be a better, fairer person thing.

I glanced up at Deejena. "You still have Shadow; and I know you can fight in it." Just a few months ago, Deejena protected Nakuma from my assassination attempt. Deejena pretty much Shadowported around me, doing everything she could to piss me off and keep me busy long enough for Nakuma to escape without doing anything to really hurt me… with the exclusion of a punch to my beak. Everything else she did was carefully executed, every slice of her sword was intentionally on my armor plating. And every time I turned to fight her, she was already in another of my blind spots doing the same thing again, using the shadowports to create a thick covering of Shadow to consume my field of vision with. Deejena was no fool… she didn't need her sword to fight.

She glanced at me, sighing. "Without a sword… I'm a disgrace to my family. The sword given to me held drops of blood from each family member in a ceremony we called 'Blood Bonding'. The sword would be slid across our tails, drawing our blood and then we'd heat the sword, marking the blade with our blood. The ancient magicks would use this blood as an enchantment… making the sword stronger. And now…" She held up the broken sword to show me. "I've just… lost a legacy of blood bonding, a long history of sword masters… I am a disgrace to my family."

I had no idea it was that precious to her. There were several families that used old weapons like that. We have several sacred relics that contain the sap of every Grand Hist built into the relic. The relics were usually just a giant orb of amber, polished to the point where you can see through it. The relics were supposedly capable of connecting with the holder, giving them insight to the days of old… the days the Hists lived in. Call it the Argonian version of the Elder Scrolls, only not as… punishing. And only Argonians can use them, and even then… you have to be a fully trained shaman. It takes years and years of meditating with the Hist to reach such a point where you can speak with the relics.

I reached down at my belt, pulling up one of my serrated blades. It was a fairy newer blade of mine. It held a special capsule for working my alchemical poisons; a small tube that used certain alchemical enchantments that helped augment the blade. I gestured to Deejena, making her look my way. I drew one of my empty alchemical bottles and held it up to Deejena. "Here, use this then." I inserted the small empty vial into the hilt of the sword and then gestured to her before tossing it up. I was shocked at how clumsily she reached out for my sword as it flew up at her, almost dropping it as she gingerly tried to grab it out of the air.

Deejena sighed a relief as she finally safely caught the sword's handle. She inspected the blade for a second, some amount of life coming back into her eyes. "Wow… are you sure about this?"

I gestured to the six other blades strapped onto my body. "I'm covered. Besides, that sword can actually work real blood magick. Just drain some of your blood into that vial and the sword will augment to fuse that blood with you. And it's made from some of the strongest metal we can afford. Mom had it made special for me. I have another just like it so… I want you to keep that one. Think of it as… becoming the pillar for your family; starting over, stronger than ever."

Deejena glanced down at me, almost smiling before nodding. "I will try to make this gesture worthy of your gift." She withdrew the alchemical bottle, placing it under her leg as she slid the sword across her shin. She created a small gash and started collecting the small stream of blood that flowed out. I tried to ignore the fact that she was doing this. There is a lot of stigma about blood magick, and it would seem that Deejena's family is still heavily practicing it, even if in the form of bonding weapons to their family line.

So, to keep myself from thinking about her actually using her blood as a form of alchemical solution, I decided to ask her something that actually mattered to me. "What happened to your gear anyway?" She normally had as many weapons as I did, and yet… that sword was all she had today. At least, from what I saw anyway. She had everything when we were getting ready to depart; we did a gear check just to make sure we all had what we needed.

Deejena was silent as she finished capping the bottle, inserting it into the sword. She held it upside down, and I could see the blade start turning red as her blood fused with the blade. Deejena continued to study my sword, almost stroking it with her finger as she traced the serrated points leading down the lower part of the blade. In all the silence, no one took their eyes off her as she did so. So, when she finally spoke, it was like a sword of its own cutting our ears. "When I heard you were in trouble… I dropped my gear. Slowed me down, made me loud… noisy… a risk. I needed my stealth. I only had one Shadowport I could rely on after all. And one unnecessary dagger grazing my arm is all it takes to make me miss the neck of a particularly armored troll of an elf. I couldn't take that risk. I ditched my gear before coming to your aid earlier." She shook her head, smiling as she hugged the sword close to her. "I'm going to name you _Unouhk'du Jeic_." _Heart's Soul_? Strange name, but ok.

Deejena turned her attention away from the blade to her bleeding leg. She started wrapping it up, staunching the bleeding. She would be busy doing that for a few minutes. I had to check on a few other people. I walked over to Vistha, sitting down next to him. Vistha and I have a… checkered friendship. When we were in the academy, Ram-ku, Vistha, and I were nearly inseparable, but that's only because we were chosen as candidates for the Shadow Squad. We were forced to train together, eat together… all of that team-building BS. After an event where Ram-ku pulled down Vistha's pants during a run, Ram-ku and I started dating. Vistha quickly started being the background character, the one that followed us around but never really said much of anything. I never got to learn what he was really about. Who he was as an actual person. I kind of hated myself for overshadowing him with Ram-ku, but we were dating so it wasn't like I hated Vistha… I just really liked Ram.

"So…" I turned to Vistha. He was quietly sharpening one of his knives on his elbow wetting stone. I always noticed he wore one instead of one of our forearm throat slicers: curved forearm blades made for deadly elbow bashes. He paid little attention to me as he continued working on his knife, making small rhythmic sounds as he passively ignored me.

I continued to look at Vistha as he worked on his knife. He finally snorted disdainfully, looking up at me. "Ram's condition is stable. He will be fine." He went back to his knife.

I glanced down at Ram. He was resting pretty easily. After getting shot in the leg like that, I wasn't sure if he was going to make it. The energy blast went right through his armor plating, almost tearing his muscles off. As it was, he had a really bad burn so far. The burn on his leg showed a lot of exposed muscle that was oozing some kind of white puss, blisters spread across most of his calf. It had to be painful, but it's still better than the alternative. If he hadn't been wearing our thick leather and glass plating… well… I'm guessing he wouldn't have a leg at all. With how that energy ate through the buildings and the street like it did… I'm guessing one direct hit would be more than enough to put us all out for good. Damn Dwemer.

I glanced over to Neetsa. He was busy trying to figure out the cannon. Onastvee was right beside him, trying to figure out how to use it too.

I glanced back at Vistha. "Tell me… what do you think about this?"

He snorted. "Think? Since when does anyone care about what _I_ think?" After a few seconds of me staring him dead in the eye, he shrugged against the wall, exhaling sharply. He chewed on his cheek for a few seconds, his mind drifting away. "We're outmatched… outnumbered… and surrounded. We're low on provisions… low on morale. Our enemy is likely waiting us out like we're waiting them out. We're stuck in this room, waiting for the inevitable… or waiting for a rescue. Or a plan." He glanced at me. "So, what do I think? I think… we're not getting any closer to our objective sitting here."

"Leaving now would be dangerous." Deejena said from her little perch on the broken pipe up near the ceiling. "The best shadowscales wait for an opportunity to strike. That being said, the enemy expects us to leave… expects us to act. They don't expect us to think, to use our heads. The Dwemer are notorious for believing everyone else is nothing more than animals. And we're Argonians… the lowest on any evolutionary chain in Tamriel to any elf or human. The Dwemer will expect us to behave like animals… cornered and mad with vengeance. They _want_ us to lash out. They _want_ to believe we're just as stupid as they think."

I nodded to Deejena. "And that would mean we sit here?"

She shook her head. "No, it means we sneak out of here."

"How?" Neetsa looked up to Deejena. "The sewer does not extend past the town… we'd have to go up, and if we somehow made it past the patrols storming the sewer… we'd still have those flying ships of theirs to deal with. Not to mention that massive spider thing."

"The massive spider thing is broken." Onastvee said reassuringly as she placed her hand on Neetsa's arm.

"We don't know that for certain." Ram-ku lightly breathed out, slowly opening his eyes. "You guys are talking loud enough to wake the dead." He grumbled as he started pushing himself up.

Vistha stuck his foot out, placing it on Ram's chest. "Nope, you're staying there." He kept his foot there until Ram let himself slide back down onto the floor.

Ram sighed. "We can't just stay here. My burn's going to get infected if we stay here."

Vistha grunted. "It's already infected."

I nodded. It was pretty bad. "If we're not out of here… we might have to cut the leg off."

Ram pointed his finger up at me. "You do that… and we're finished. And I'm not suggesting you and I are a _thing_ … but I'm saying in general. You and me… whatever kind of influence we have on each other, friends… whatever… it's over. Gone. You're not taking my leg from me." I was so tempted to just stab his leg right here and now and leave him to die. I'm not that bad of a person though. At least, I'm trying not to be anymore.

I glanced up at Vistha. "Can you carry him?"

He nodded. "I can, but I don't want to." He glanced over to Nakuma and Oleeme. "But what about those two? We still can't leave without them getting in the way."

Oleeme glanced away for a second. "Um… you could leave us here." He gripped Nakuma's hand tightly in his. "It's for the best. I have a pocket dimension… I can call food to us. Bedding. You know…"

Vistha snorted. "Liar."

"What?" Oleeme started to say, but Vistha was already interrupting him.

"If you could do that, you would have done it by now. I don't know magic, but I do know bullshit. And those silencers are complete bullshit. While you're in this town, and while they're up… you can't do shit."

"We could shadowport." Oleeme said defensively.

"Anywhere in the sewer, yeah, but anything further away and you're hitting squat." Neetsa replied back.

Vistha nodded to Neetsa. "And that means your little dimension or whatever is probably not in this sewer. You can't reach it… you can use it."

Nakuma, the normally lifeless statue, finally sprung to life, looking up at us. "While it is true that we are unable to assist you in escaping this tunnel, I feel we must urge you to take Ram-ku with you and escape. Oleeme and I will stay here and use our powers to help stall the Dwemer. We've witnessed their inability to stop mages so far… and as long as they cannot overpower Shadow, we should be able to overcome them in the sewers."

"Unless they put one of those tonal things down here too." Deejena said from her perch. "Admit it, Nakuma… you can't possibly hope to survive down here. You can't even leave this room without grabbing your head in pain."

"And you cannot hope to survive with Oleeme and me slowing you down. Whether unconscious or screaming in pain… we are liabilities. We will remain, you will escape and give your intelligence to the Oversight. Tell them what you learned." Nakuma sighed slightly, giving Oleeme's hand a small squeeze. "I'm scared, Oleeme." Some amount of life was starting to return to her.

Oleeme forced a small smile. "Nakuma… we'll be fine. As long as we have each other, we'll be fine."

"Well… that's a lie." A new voice called behind us, one I didn't recognize. I quickly turned around, unsheathing two poisoned daggers. As soon as I saw the dark rubbery robes and leather plating of the Shadow Master, I quickly lowered my arms.

I looked back at everyone, signaling them to drop their weapons. Luckily for me, everyone is just as quick as I am. That didn't stop everyone from crowding around me. Even Ram-ku was attempting to stand up, and Vistha wasn't stopping him this time. Vistha was standing beside me, flicking his head to the side as he tried to reason out what was going on. "Shadow Master? Here?"

The Shadow Master, a young-looking lilac-scaled man with dark cyan feathers that fell to his shoulders, walked up to us. "I came to save you. Come, our extraction team is waiting for us."

I looked over to Oleeme and Nakuma. "Those two can't…"

In a flash, the Shadow Master was behind the two wraiths, stabbing them both with small injectable poisons. Nakuma and Oleeme both fell into the Shadow Master's arms. In a single fluid movement, he threw them both over his shoulders, one for each, and started strolling for the small tunnel we swam through to get to our little hidey hole. "We'll have to be quick. The patrols are lax but still present. I decided to spare the lives of those I ran into… if not only to reinforce the idea that I was never here to begin with. And if we're not fast… our extraction team will be unable to get us out of here. If they're spotted… we're all dead."

Ram-ku looked the Shadow Master up and down. "Wait… I don't recognize you. What's your name?"

The Shadow Master looked back at us. "Zergon Creishan. I'm the newest Shadow Master, the last one promoted by the previous queen. Now, unless any of you have more pointless questions…"

Onastvee nodded. "Yeah… how did you get here? And how are we going to get out?"

Shadow Master Creishan sighed, turning to face her. "I came in through a secret entrance outside the Imperial Prison. I know of it because I used it to escape prison once… and used it to sneak back in. So, I used it to get down here. As for how to find you… I used my nose, and my wits. I once used this very hole to escape Imperial soldiers. We're going to head through the tunnels back to the exit. Our extraction team is waiting. And then we're going to Shadowport as many malachite daggers into the town as possible, hope we illuminate the silencers. And when we find them all… bomb the shit out of them. Drop the silencers, and call in the battlemages. From there… your team will be free to join in the fun, or return home for rest and relaxation. Your call."

I glanced back at Ram-ku. "You're getting fixed up by a White Robe. No excuses."

"And you'll hear none." He replied through a grunt. "This is really bad. I wouldn't dare try to fight as I am now." He glanced over to Oleeme and Nakuma. "But, why couldn't _they_ heal me again?"

I looked over to Ram. "You were out but… the two wraiths were too busy trying to recover their magicka. Those silencers did a lot to their mental state. Using Shadow was easy… but their other methods of magicka… it's slow to return. Especially our Atronach, Oleeme. He had nothing left at all. Nakuma was the only one with anything to give, and she was still trying her best to get herself in working order. That's why you're still bleeding."

Ram was silent for a second, but he finally nodded. "Ok, I guess I can see that." He glanced over to Shadow Master Creishan. "So, are we going or what?"

Shadow Master Creishan glanced down at Ram's leg. "You're not getting in the water with _that_. That shit water will…"

"It already has." Ram growled out. "And it's getting worse by the second."

Shadow Master nodded. "Ok then. Let's go."

…

[Nisha]

"Ok, class… just, calm down." Our teacher, S'Khinlin-jo tried his best to keep us under control. Several other teachers were doing the same with their classes as well, but you can guess exactly what was going on in our minds. The Imperial City was gone… destroyed. Some of us had family in the Imperial City… me included. My mom was dead. Again.

"Calm down? My Uncle lives there!" A Suthay from another class screamed out.

S'Khinlin-jo nodded. "We've just received word, the Imperial City was evacuated. No reported casualties. The Nine Divines rescued everyone." Everyone was alive? That was a lie. I watched my mother die. I watched her shot to death by the armored soldier. There was no evacuation.

Immia looked over to me, pushing against my arm. "You hear that? Your mother is just fine."

I glanced over at her, trying my best to hold in my rising growl. "I watched her die!" I shouted just too loudly, and it drew everyone's attention.

It definitely drew S'Khinlin-jo's attention. He sighed as he pulled up a crystal ball. He walked over to me, handing it to me. "Do you know her frequency?"

I nodded, staring at the crystal ball in his hand. This was a sick joke… offering me the world in the palm of his hand, knowing that what waited for me on the other end was either another face… or an endless ringtone. Several seconds of agonizing torment as I wait for the impossible to happen. I stared up at him, glaring as I said, "I won't waste time calling a ghost."

He only sighed as he ran his thumb over the crystal ball. "What's her name?"

I felt my heart skip a beat as I mumbled out, "Sosia Ernard."

S'Khinlin-jo's ears perked up. "The Arch Mage of Cyrodiil?" His ears flattened again, but only for a second. "Well, then." He pushed in a frequency, and then pushed the crystal ball into my chest, forcing me to take it. "Give it a second."

I was forced to just stand there, everyone watching me with wide and curious eyes as the crystal ball glowed, waiting for the other crystal ball to connect their frequencies together. There was a slight humming noise as the ball made a connection. There was a second of fuzziness, but the image quickly sharpened. I could see Mom's face inside the crystal ball, staring right at me. "Yes, hello?" She called into the crystal ball. When she saw me, her face lightened up. "Nisha! Oh my gods, it's so good to see you! How are your studies in Torval going?"

I almost couldn't believe it. Tears started flowing down my face and my knees gave out. I quickly found myself on the ground, hugging the ball close to me. "You're alive!" I screamed.

There was a small pause before I heard, "Oh… sorry about that. I should have called earlier. I was too busy organizing a temporary refugee camp. We're spending the night before heading down to Kvatch. The town has enough defenses that we can keep ourselves defended against anything. We'll probably spend the night there before heading to Anvil. Being close to the sea means quick evacuation away from the mainland if necessary. Anyway, Nisha… darling…"

I pulled the crystal ball out of my chest, looking mommy in the eye. "Yes?"

"I'm so glad you're safe, and I'm really sorry I didn't call earlier. After… after everything that happened, I just couldn't slow down to call you. I was too busy with everything here in camp. Battlemages are preparing to launch into the town… we're currently rescuing our scouts, and we're preparing a defensive force to take out any Dwemer that march out of the Imperial City. If they try attacking us, they're going to find out the hard way that we won't let them wander our land. Not after what they did."

I couldn't find words to say, so I just settled for crying. She was alive! I lost Mom… Dad… and my new dad… and I thought I had lost my new mom. It would have been too much to lose my family a second time. I couldn't even stress just how happy I was right now, knowing she was alive. "Mom…" I purred out, hugging the crystal ball close to me.

"I'll come and see you soon, darling. I'll bring Vatu and Lysara too. We'll all go out and have a family day. I just need to make sure everyone gets to Anvil first. Is that ok?"

I nodded heavily, but I'm guessing Mom couldn't see that while she was being pressed against me. I pulled the crystal ball away, nodding to her. "That sounds nice. I can't wait."

Mom smiled warmly. "I wish I could stay and chat, but I need to make sure our tents have enough blankets set out. Hunters should be back with our food soon. I'll call you tomorrow, is that alright?"

I nodded. "I'll keep my crystal ball nearby. Thanks, Mom. Good night."

She gave me one last warm smile. "I'll see you soon, darling. Until then, get some rest, continue your studies… and most importantly of all… keep your friends close. We need all the friends we can get these days."

I looked over at Immia. "I will, Mom. Good night."

"Good night to you." She called back.

"Ma'am… the Shadow Master has returned with the scouts." Someone said in the background.

Mom looked away from the crystal ball. "Great, I want to meet with them. I want to know everything they saw." She looked back at me, smiling warmly again. "Well, work calls. Sleep well, darling. Call you in the morning."

And just like that, Mom was gone. The crystal ball was silent again, but now… I had my strength back. Mom was ok! I couldn't get over that. Memories of me curling up in Vatu's lap as the Imperial City burned down around us; Mom and Dad were nothing but unmoving bloody corpses. There were loud cries coming out from beyond our walls, footsteps that shook the house. The loud growls of the monster outside the window, swinging his large stick around. The giant fiery bird in the sky knocking down buildings, destroying Dad's temple. And the worst part was… I don't think I ever left that room. I don't think I've ever recovered from it. And today was proof of that. I thought I had lost my mom all over again. It was the same feeling… only it was both what happened to Mom… and what happened to new Mom. It was twice as bad. And then there was Dad and new Dad too. I didn't see new Dad die… but that didn't make it any less painful when I found out.

Immia wrapped her arms around me, hugging me close to her. "Don't worry, Nisha! Everything's fine! See?"

I let myself smile, wiping away a tear. "Yeah…" I just hoped it lasted. I really wanted that family vacation. I wanted to have a fully functional family. A real life.

…

[Sosia Ernard]

I hated having to hang up on Nisha like that, but it seemed like she was barely even hanging on as it was. I'd be sure to call her first thing in the morning, once she's had a nice rest in her bed. And while she's doing that, I have a city to take back.

I turned to see Zergon racing up with the Shadow Squad we sent in earlier today. The sun was already beginning to set; we had to do this quickly if we were do this at all. We had to know the locations of all the silencers so that we could coordinate every battle force in Tamriel on the Imperial City. The Dwemer have one location… _one_. As far as we know… this is their only army. Once we take it down, they're done. We can do it, I know we can. We just have to plan carefully, execute efficiently, and most importantly… be ready for anything. Like the giant falling spider that leveled the whole town and killed our gods! How the fuck can we plan for shit like that?! Not to mention their Silencing devices, their hyper-powered armor, and their beam weapons.

"About time!" I shouted to Zergon, trying my best to give him a reassuring smile as I brushed my auburn bangs out of my eyes. "I was going to send a party after you, but I figured you decided to kill everyone… like the last birthday party I invited you to." To understand that, you have to know a few things. First off… there were a lot of bad people… bad people I had associations with. I'm Breton so… we kind of have a complicated system of checks… and balances. Please do not think I'm evil, some of these people were funding the Cult of Worms… some of them were working with the Mythic Dawn… and some of them were vying for control of my family's wealth. I couldn't sit on the information we had collected and so… I funded a little party, and Zergon was invited. I hate that I allowed it to happen but… you know? It had to be done. I saved a lot of lives. And I now own that house. The ghosts of the victims still haunt the halls, and I let them exist as peacefully as possible. Gave them anchors to the house so that they can wander and do whatever they need to do. Once they complete their life's mission… the anchor fades away and they are peacefully escorted to the afterlife. I swear I'm not a bad person.

Zergon replied by smirking. "See you still have your wits." He glanced back at the town. "I thought about it though. Those silencers are no joke. I stick with pure Shadow… but even soulic arts are nearly silenced by those things. Direct exposure to those vibrational waves make it impossible to focus on any art form, even soulic. At least down in the sewers, the vibrations rebounded at a slightly different pitch… allowing me some amount of soulic control."

"Wait… wait…" I held up my hand. "Zergon… you just said something that makes sense! Vibrational pitch control… dammit!" I kicked at a nearby rock, nearly stubbing my toe as I did so. I didn't even think of that! Of course the pitches were meant to disrupt magick patterns! All magick fizzled out as it drew near the town! Crystals have their own vibrational pitch… and that's how malachite does its Shielding stuff. So… using more malachite would allow us some amount of movement inside the town. But… it didn't work with Nakuma. Perhaps it was the pitch as well as the vibration? Something that fizzles the surrounding air as well pitch affecting the mind? How can we combat that?

Zergon waited there, patiently waiting for me to think of something. As he stood there, Supreme Justice was marching up to us. As she drew near, I nodded to her. "Hey, Justinia. Any news?" Justinia was an old friend of ours. While she wasn't some prophesized heroine like me, she was still part of our little party. She was a new recruit when I first met her, and she was with us the day we all were thrown in prison. Oblivion… she was the one that arrested us, charged us with 'city-wide shenanigans' and took us to the prison… right in time to get thrown in the same cell, and just in time for Emperor Septim to come walk in behind us… give us all a quick look, shrugging and pretty much saying, "Well, I guess we're doing this then."

So, Justinia… she's like my bestie. Every time I went to a new town, she was pretty much the one I ran into. Same with Adam. Every time he went to a town with an Oblivion Gate that needed crushed… she was usually there too. Battle of Bruma? She led that when her captain fell on the field. Her quick mind allowed us a victory in the Imperial City. And now… she was probably going to lead us to another quick victory. A little about her? Um… she was raised in a family of all guys… was treated like a house slave for most of her young years, cleaning up after everyone, and instead of marrying some rich noble like her father wanted, she joined the Legion while pretending to be a guy. Not that she couldn't join as a woman but… I don't know. I really don't understand her reasons for that. She won't tell me why either.

Justinia nodded to me. "Yes, Sosia. The Northern Legion of Skyrim is on their way to our location. Hammerfell is reporting in as well. The Alik'r stand ready to assist. They're on their way as well. Elsweyr is deploying their Leos and Firedrakes first thing in the morning. Black Marsh is already assisting, I see." She looked Zergon up and down, giving him a cautious glare. She and he have a… checkered relationship. Let's just say… she's attempted to arrest him many times during our adventures. It usually ended up as a date. That trend continues to this day. "Have your battlemages reported in?" She glanced back at me, allowing a smile grow on her face.

I nodded back to her. "They're waiting for the word. So… what's the plan?"

Justinia looked back to Zergon. "Assuming your murderous friend here can stay his hand for a few minutes…"

Zergon chuckled. "Stay my hand? Last I checked, your hand isn't good at staying either." He stepped closer to her.

Justinia rolled her eyes, drawing her longsword, pointing it down at his… little dragon. "I know it will grow back. Test my patience."

Zergon quickly backed away, still giving Justinia the best lover's eyes I've ever seen him attempt on her. And as I could see… it was kind of working. It always does. "Oh, come on, Justie, we're all on the same side here."

"There are still 40 counts of murder on your head." She replied dryly.

Zergon laughed at the number. "Only? I thought it was more."

She sighed, pulling her sword away. "Just… we can continue this later." She looked to me. "So, the plan. First I need to know-" She looked over to the Shadow Squad. "Did you locate the source of Silence?"

Shadowblades Meesei and Deejena both shook their heads. "No, ma'am." Shadowblade Deejena reported. "We found only one and marked it, but that was before the Dwemer started raining fire down on us."

Justinia groaned. "That's not good. But, the malachite works? Let's us a small glimpse of their town?"

I nodded. "But the Silence is still there."

Justinia glanced at me. "How many malachite markers do you think we can make before midnight? And… do you have anyone that can fly in the sky, see the best detailed things from up above, and shoot with deadly accuracy with a bow at those far away detailed things?"

I had to tap my chin to think but… we always have ways to fly. Enchanted capes. And for someone with precision eyes and aim with a bow? I know only one Bosmer perfectly made for the job. "Yup, and I can have him here within an hour or two."

Justinia smiled. "Great, then here's the plan."

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

 _So, up above, I was going to say, I was going to show you a chapter of everyone running away and ending up in the sewer, but I figured... that whole scene didn't need to be shown. It was basically just everyone running, dodging fire as the hummingbirds fired down at them, squads of Dwemer mobilizing in the streets as they attempted to murder everyone. The team finds one of the jamming devices before diving into the sewer, after Ram-ku gets gunned down (not wounded). And as the team tries to put themselves back together, Deejena comforts Meesei... which goes bad once Deejena kisses her, which sparks a whole lot of trouble between them both. Um... maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that? Um... nevermind. Pretend you didn't just read that. I could erase it... but... for some reason I haven't. Weird.  
_

 _Um... so... yeah..._

 _..._

 _Anyway, next chapter we're going back to Lydia's world! Yay! with Lydia as the perspective! Yay!_


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